
Class ^ ^tT. 
Book .-- - ' ' . 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSiT. 



7^ 

6rcat Commanbers 

EDITED BY JAMES GRANT WILSON 



GENERAL JACKSON 



Ubc (Bteat (^omman^ers Series* 

Edited by General James Grant Wilson. 



Admiral Farragut. 

By Captain A. T. Mahan, U. S. N. 

Zachary Taylor. 

By General O. O. Howard, U. S. A. 

General Jackson. By James Parton. 

IN PREPARATION, 

General Washington. 

By General Bradley T. Johnson. 

General Greene. 

By Captain Francis V. Greene, U. S. A. 

General Sherman. 

By General Manning F. Force. 

General Grant. 

By General James Grant Wilson. 

General J. E. Johnston. 

By Robert M. Hughes, of Virginia. 

General Scott. 

By General Marcus J. Wright. 

Admiral Porter. 

By James R. Soley, Assist. Sec. of Navy. 

General Lee. 

By General Fitzhugh Lee, 
General Thomas. 

By Henry Coppee, LL, D. 

General Hancock. 

By I leneral Francis A. Walker. 

General Sheridan. 

By General Henry E. Davies. 



New York : D. Appleton & Co., i, 3, & 5 Bond St. 




^ ^S' ^'ZziZ^l.X^^^-^^ 



GREAT COMMANDERS 

* * * • 



GENERAL JACKSON 



BY 



JAMES PARTON 




NEW YORK 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

1893 






Copyright, 1892, 
By D, APPLETON AND COMPANY. 



Ail rights reserved. 



Electrotyped and Printed 

AT THE ApPLETON PrESS, U. S. A. 



PREFACE. 



The military life of Andrew Jackson lasted nine 
years, of which about two years were passed in the field. 
He was in no proper sense of the word a professional 
soldier, and he resented the phrase "military chieftain " 
which Henry Clay, knowing its irritating power, so 
often applied to him. He was simply a Tennessee far- 
mer and militia-general who, when his country was in- 
vaded, led his neighbors and fellow-citizens to its de- 
fense. In doing this duty of a citizen he displayed 
military talents which friends and foes agreed in pro- 
nouncing extraordinary. 

His old comrade and friend, a near neighbor for half 
a lifetime, the late Major William B. Lewis, a gentleman 
competent to judge in such matters, used to say, as he 
talked of the Creek and New Orleans campaigns, that 
Andrew Jackson, in point of native military capacity, 
was the peer of the great generals of the world — Caesar, 
Cromwell, Frederick, Bonaparte, or Wellington — and in 
support of this opinion he would adduce many curious 
facts and traits that could be known only to an intimate 
and confidential companion. 

This was the judgment of a friend, though a friend 
not blind to the limitations of his old commander. I 
have before me the testimony of an enemy, one who had 
personally felt the force of the stroke which General 
Jackson's puissant arm could deal. As late as 1888 



vi GENERAL JACKSON. 

there were two survivors of the British army that in- 
vaded Louisiana in 1814 and took part in the action 
of January 8, 1815. One of these was the late Earl 
of Albemarle ; the other, Rev. George R. Gleig, who 
was for many years chaplain -general to the British 
forces, but served as a lieutenant of foot in the expe- 
dition against New Orleans. Mr. Gleig was the " sub- 
altern " whose excellent narrative of the expedition 
is occasionally quoted in this volume. A short time 
before his death he wrote thus to his American friend, 
General James Grant Wilson, the editor of this series 
of volumes: 

" When I look back upon the means which General 
Jackson adopted to cover New Orleans, and remember 
the materials of which his army was composed, I can not 
but regard his management of that campaign as one of 
the most masterly of which history makes mention. His 
night attack on our advanced guard was as bold a stroke 
as ever was struck. It really paralyzed all our future 
operations; for, though unsuccessful, it taught us to hold 
our enemy in respect, and in all future movements to act 
with an excess of caution. The use, also, which he made 
of the river was admirable. Indeed, I am inclined to 
think that to him the generals who came after him were 
indebted for the perception of the great advantages to 
which the command of rivers may be turned. And do 
not let us forget that he had little else to oppose to 
Wellington's veterans, fresh from their triumphs in Spain 
and the south of France, except raw levies. Altogether 
I think of Jackson as, next to Washington, the greatest 
general America has produced." 

To the last of his days — and he lived to be past 
ninety-one — he retained these impressions unimpaired. 
General Wilson, in conversation, would call the old 
gentleman's attention to the brilliant achievements of 



PREFACE. Vii 

Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, and others, but could never 
convince him that either of them showed miUtary ca- 
pacity superior to that of the general who had given him 
and his comrades such a world of trouble seventy years 
before. 

" No," he would say, " Jackson did everything that 
could be done to repel an attack that ought to have 
proved successful. His beating up our bivouac on the 
night of our landing was a master stroke, and, had his 
troops been such as yours became during your civil war, 
he would have destroyed us." This is the judgment of 
a soldier who saw and felt during some terrible weeks 
what it is in war to have a real general in command on 
the other side. 

No one can carefully examine the record without dis- 
covering that Andrew Jackson possessed the indispen- 
sable qualities of a commanding general : in all circum- 
stances imperturbably brave ; confident in himself, but 
open to suggestion and to argument ; bold when boldness 
was wise, but as wary as an Indian until he saw his way 
to victory clear ; vigilant, prompt, persistent, indefati- 
gable, and aware of the importance of little things. He 
had for his soldiers the paternal feeling which we ob- 
serve in all the great generals, as we do also in the great 
captains of industry ; yet he could be a stern and ruth- 
less disciplinarian. There is a passage in his farewell 
address to the army in 182 1 where he speaks of the 
bounty-jumpers of his day, who found it " a source of 
speculation to go from rendezvous to rendezvous, enlist- 
ing, receiving the bounty, and deserting, all the way 
from Boston to New Orleans." The passage, if it had 
been acted upon during the late war, would have saved 
a vast amount of suffering and waste. 

Two of his favorite maxims denote the soldier : " In 
war, till everything is done, nothing is done " ; and this 



viii GENERAL JACKSON. 

also, "When you have a thing to do, take all the time 
for thinking that the circumstances allow, but when the 
time has come for action, stop thinking." 

[The last literary work of James Parton was the 
preparation of this brief biography of General Jackson. 
It was completed in August, 1891. Two months later, 
a long career of literary industry was closed by his 
death at the ripe age of seventy. An indefatigable 
worker, he produced many valuable American biog- 
raphies, of which his earliest — a Life of Horace Greeley 
— was perhaps the most popular. Although less am- 
bitious in scope than some of Mr. Parton's previous 
volumes, his last work, like his first, presents a fair esti- 
mate of its subject, and seems free from the natural 
tendency of biographers, which Macaulay sneeringly 
designates " the disease of admiration." Altogether 
the book appears to be a model miniature biography, 
possessing throughout all the interest of a romance. 
It would seem that this story of the career of the great 
American commander can not fail to add to Mr. Parton's 
literary reputation. Editor.] 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. — Parentage and Education i 

II. — During the Revolutionary War .... 7 
III. — He studies Law, and becomes a Tennessee 

Lawyer 17 

IV. — In Public Life, and as a Man of Business . . 25 
V. — Duel with Charles Dickinson . . . -33 

VI.— At Home 43 

VII. — In the Field 49 

VIIL— The Massacre at Fort Mims 64 

IX. — The Creek Country invaded 74 

X. — The Finishing Blow 108 

XL — Mobile defended, and the English driven from 

Pensacola 124 

XII.— Jackson at New Orleans, and Approach of the 

British i44 

XIII. — Night Battle of December 230 .... 164 

XIV. — Shovels and Wheelbarrows 176 

XV. — Second Advance of the English . . . .192 

XVL— The 8th of January 208 

XVIL — End of the Campaign 231 

XVIIL — Commander of the Southern Department . . 249 
XIX.— A Candidate for the Presidency . . . .273 

XX. — Inauguration 281 

XXI. — Terror among the Office-holders . . . 287 

XXIL— The Second Term 297 

XXIIL— In Retirement 31 5 

Index 327 



GENERAL JACKSON. 



, CHAPTER I. 

PARENTAGE AND EDUCATION. 

In 1765, Andrew Jackson, the father of the Andrew 
Jackson whose career we are about to relate, emigrated, 
with his wife and two sons, from Carrickfergus, in the 
north of Ireland, to South Carolina. His sons were 
named Hugh and Robert; Andrew was not yet born. 
In his native country he had cultivated a few hired 
acres, and his wife had been a weaver of linen. Like 
most of the inhabitants of the north of Ireland, he was 
of Scottish origin ; but his ancestors had lived for five 
generations in the neighborhood of Carrickfergus; 
lowly, honest people, tillers of the soil and weavers; 
radical Whigs in politics, Presbyterians in religion. He 
was accompanied to America by three of his neighbors, 
James, Robert, and Joseph Crawford, the first-named of 
whom was his brother-in-law. The peace between 
France and England, signed two years before, which 
ended the " old French War " — the war in which Brad- 
dock was defeated and Canada won — had restored to 
mankind their highway, the ocean, and given an impulse 
to emigration from the Old World to the New. From the 
north of Ireland large numbers sailed away to the land 
of promise. Five sisters of Mrs. Jackson had gone, or 
were soon going. Samuel Jackson, a brother of Andrew, 



2 GENERAL JACKSON. 

afterward went, and established himself in Philadelphia, 
where he long lived, a respectable citizen. Mrs. Suffren, 
a daughter of another brother, followed in later years, 
and settled in the city of New York, where she has liv- 
ing descendants. 

The party of emigrants from Carrickfergus land- 
ed at Charleston, and proceeded without delay to the 
Waxhaw settlement, a hundred and sixty miles to the 
northwest of Charleston, where many of their kindred 
and countrymen were already established. This settle- 
ment was, or had been, the seat of the Waxhaw tribe of 
Indians. 

A proof of the poverty of Andrew Jackson is this : 
the Crawfords, who came with him from Ireland, bought 
lands near the center of the settlement, on the Waxhaw 
Creek itself — lands which still attest the wisdom of their 
choice ; but Jackson settled seven miles away, on new 
land, on the banks of Twelve Mile Creek, another branch 
of the Catawba. The place is now known as " Pleasant 
Grove Camp Ground," and the particular land once oc- 
cupied by the father of General Jackson is still pointed 
out by the old people of the neighborhood. 

For two years Andrew Jackson and his family toiled 
in the Carolina woods. He had built his log-house, 
cleared some fields, and raised a crop. Then, the father 
of the family, his work all incomplete, sickened and 
died : his two boys being still very young, and his wife 
far advanced in pregnancy. This was early in the 
spring of 1767. 

The bereaved family of the Jacksons never returned 
to their home on the banks of Twelve Mile Creek, but 
went from the churchyard to the house, not far off, of 
one of Mrs. Jackson's brothers-in-law, George McKemey 
by name, whose remains now repose in the same old 
burying-ground. A few nights after there was a swift 



PARENTAGE AND EDUCATION. 3 

sending of messengers to the neighbors, and a hurrying 
across the fields of friendly women ; and before the sun 
rose a son was born, the son whose career and fortunes 
we have undertaken to relate. It was in a small log- 
house, in the province of North Carolina, less than a 
quarter of a mile from the boundary-line between North 
and South Carolina, that the birth took place. Andrew 
Jackson, then, was born in Union County, North Caro- 
lina, on the 15th of March, 1767. 

General Jackson always supposed himself to be a 
native of South Carolina. " Fellow-citizens of my native 
State ! " he exclaims, at the close of his proclamation to 
the nullifiers of South Carolina; but it is as certain as 
any fact of the kind can be that he was mistaken. The 
clear and uniform tradition of the neighborhood, sup- 
ported by a great mass of indisputable testimony, points 
to a spot in North Carolina, but only a stone's-throw 
from the line that divides it from South Carolina, as the 
birthplace of Andrew Jackson. 

In the family of his Uncle Crawford, Andy Jackson 
(for by this familiar name he is still spoken of in the 
neighborhood) spent the first ten or twelve years of his 
life. Mr. Crawford was a man of considerable substance 
for a new country, and his family was large. He lived 
in South Carolina, just over the boundary-line, near the 
Waxhaw Creek, and six miles from the Catawba River. 
The land there lies well for farming; level, but not flat ; 
undulating, but without hills of inconvenient height. 
The soil is a stiff, red clay, the stiifest of the stiff and the 
reddest of the red ; the kind of soil which bears hard 
usage, and makes the very worst winter roads anywhere 
to be found on this planet. Except where there is an 
interval of fertile soil, the country round about is a 
boundless continuity of pine woods, wherein to this day 
wild turkeys and deer are shot, and the farmers take 



4 GENERAL JACKSON. 

their cotton to market in immense wagons of antique 
pattern, a journey of half a week, and camp out every 
night. As evening closes in, the passing traveler sees 
the mules, the negro driver, the huge covered wagon, 
the farmer, and sometimes his wife with an infant, 
grouped in the most strikingly picturesque manner, in 
an opening of the forest, around a blazing fire of pine 
knots that light up the scene like an illumination. In 
such a country as this, with horses to ride, and cows to 
hunt, and journeys to make, and plenty of boys, black 
and white, to play with, our little friend spent his early 
years. 

In due time the boy was sent to an " old-field school," 
an institution not much unlike the roadside schools in 
Ireland of which we read. The Northern reader is per- 
haps not aware that an " old field " is not a field at all, 
but a pine forest. When crop after crop of cotton, with- 
out rotation, has exhausted the soil, the fences are 
taken away, the land lies waste, the young pines at 
once spring up and soon cover the whole field with a 
thick growth of wood. In one of these old fields the 
rudest possible shanty of a log house is erected, with a 
fireplace that extends from side to side and occupies a 
third of the interior. In winter the interstices of the 
log walls are filled up with clay, which the restless 
fingers of the boys make haste to remove in time to admit 
the first warm airs of spring. An itinerant schoolmas- 
ter presents himself in a neighborhood ; the responsi- 
ble farmers pledge him a certain number of pupils, and 
an old-field school is established for the season. Read- 
ing, writing, and arithmetic were all the branches taught 
in the early days. 

But Mrs. Jackson had more ambitious views for her 
youngest son. She aimed to give him a liberal education, 
in the hope that he would one day become a clergyman in 



PARENTAGE AND EDUCATION. 



5 



the Presbyterian Church. It is probable that her con- 
dition was not one of absolute dependence. The tradi- 
tion of the neighborhood is, that she was noted the coun- 
try round for her skill in spinning flax, and that she 
earned money by spinning to pay for Andrew's schooling. 
It is possible, too, that her relations in Ireland may 
have contributed something to her support. 

Andy was a wild, frolicsome, willful, mischievous, 
daring, reckless boy ; generous to a friend, but never 
content to submit to a stronger enemy. He was passion- 
ately fond of those sports which are mimic battles ; 
above all, wrestling. 

If our knowledge of the school-life of Jackson is 
scanty, we are at no loss to say what he learned and 
what he failed to learn at school. He learned to read, 
to write, to cast accounts — little more. If he began, as 
he may have done, to learn by heart, in the old-fashioned 
way, the Latin grammar, he never acquired enough of 
it to leave any traces of classical knowledge in his mind 
or his writings. In some of his later letters there 
may be found, it is true, an occasional Latin phrase of 
two or three words, but so quoted as to show igno- 
rance rather than knowledge. He was never a well-in- 
formed man. He never was addicted to books. He 
never learned to write the English language correctly, 
though he often wrote it eloquently and convincingly. 
He never learned to spell correctly, though he was a 
better speller than Frederick II, Marlborough, Napoleon, 
or Washington. Few men of his day, and no women, 
were correct spellers. 

He was nine years old when the Declaration of In- 
dependence was signed. By the time the war approached 
the Waxhaw settlement, bringing blood and terror with 
it, leaving desolation behind it, closing all schoolhouses, 
and putting a stop to the peaceful labors of the people, 



6 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Andrew Jackson was little more than thirteen. His 
brother Hugh, a man in stature if not in years, had not 
waited for the war to come near his home, but had 
mounted his horse a year before and ridden southward 
to meet it. He was one of the troopers of that famous 
regiment to raise and equip which, its colonel, William 
Richardson Davie, spent the last guinea of his inherited 
estate. Under Colonel Davie, Hugh Jackson fought in 
the ranks of the battle of Stono, and died, after the ac- 
tion, of heat and fatigue. His brother Robert was a 
strapping lad, but too young for a soldier, and was still 
at home with his mother and Andrew when Tarleton 
and his dragoons thundered along the red roads of the 
Waxhaws, and dyed them a deeper red with the blood 
of the surprised militia. 



CHAPTER II. 

DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 

It was on the 29th of May, 1780, that Tarleton, with 
three hundred horsemen, surprised a detachment of 
militia in the Waxhaw settlement and killed one hun- 
dred and thirteen of them, and wounded a hundred and 
fifty. The wounded, abandoned to the care of the set- 
tlers, were quartered in the houses of the vicinity; the 
old log Waxhaw meeting-house itself being converted 
into a hospital for the most desperate cases. Mrs. 
Jackson was one of the kind women who ministered to 
the wounded soldiers in the church, and under that roof 
her boys first saw what war was. The men were dread- 
fully mangled. Some had received as many as thirteen 
wounds, and none less than three. For many days An- 
drew and his brother assisted their mother in waiting 
upon the sick men ; Andrew, more in rage than pity, 
burning to avenge their wounds and his brother's death. 

Tarleton's massacre at the Waxhaws kindled the 
flames of war in all that region of the Carolinas. Many 
notable actions were fought, and some striking though 
unimportant advantages were gained by the patriot 
forces. Andrew Jackson and his brother Robert were 
present at Sumter's gallant attack upon the British 
post of Hanging Rock, near Waxhaw, where the patriots 
half gained the day, and lost it by beginning too soon 
to drink the rum they captured from the enemy. The 
Jackson boys rode on this expedition with Colonel 



8 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Davie, a most brave, self-sacrificing officer, who, as we 
have said, commanded the troop of which Hugh Jackson 
was a member when he died, after the battle of Stono. 
Neither of the boys was attached to Davie's company, 
nor is it likely that Andrew, a boy of thirteen, did more 
than witness the affair at Hanging Rock. 

This Colonel Davie, Hugh Jackson's old commander, 
was the man, above all others who led Carolina troops 
in the Revolution, that the Jackson boys admired. He 
was a man after Andrew's own heart — swift but wary, 
bold in planning enterprises but most cautious in exe- 
cution, sleeplessly vigilant, untiringly active — one of 
those cool, quick men who apply mother-wit to the art 
of war; who are good soldiers because they are earnest 
and clear-sighted men. So far as any man was General 
Jackson's model soldier, William Richardson Davie, of 
North Carolina, was the individual. 

The boys rejoined their mother at the Waxhaw 
settlement. On the i6th of August, 1780, occurred the 
great disaster of the war in the South, the defeat of 
General Gates. The victor, Cornwallis, moved three 
weeks after, with his whole army, toward the Waxhaws ; 
which induced Mrs. Jackson and her boys once more 
to abandon their home for a safer retreat north of the 
scene of war. 

In February, 1781, the country about the Waxhaws 
again being tranquil, because subdued, Mrs. Jackson, 
her sons, and many of her neighbors returned to their 
ravaged homes. Andrew soon after passed his four- 
teenth birthday, an overgrown youth, as tall as a man, 
but weakly from having grown too fast. Then ensued 
a spring and summer of small, fierce, intestine warfare — 
a war of Whig and Tory, neighbor against neighbor, 
brother against brother, and even father against son. , 

Without detaining the reader with a detail of the 



DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. g 

Revolutionary history of the Carolinas, I yet desire to 
show what a war-charged atmosphere it was that young 
Andrew breathed during this forming period of his life, 
especially toward the close of the war, after the great 
operations ceased. 

The people in the upper country of the Carolinas 
little expected that the war would ever reach settlements 
so remote, so obscure, so scattered as theirs; and it 
did not for some years. When at last the storm of war 
drew near their borders, it found them a divided people. 
The old sentiment of loyalty was still rooted in many 
minds. There were many who had taken a recent and 
special oath of allegiance to the king, which they con- 
sidered binding in all circumstances. They were High- 
landers, clannish and religiously loyal, who pointed to 
the text, " Fear God and honor the king," and over- 
looked the fact that the biblical narrative condemns the 
Jews for desiring a kingly government. There were 
Moravians and Quakers, who conscientiously opposed 
all war. There were Catholic Irish, many of whom 
sided with the king. There were Protestant Scotch- 
Irish, Whigs and agitators in the old country, Whigs and 
fervent patriots in the new. There were placeholders, 
who adhered to their official bread and dignity. There 
were trimmers, who espoused the side that chanced to 
be strongest. The approach and collision of hostile 
forces converted most of these factions into belligerents, 
who waged a most fierce and deadly war upon one an- 
other, renewing on this new theatre the border wars of 
another age and country. 

The time came when Andrew and his brother began 
to play men's parts in the drama. Without enlisting in 
any organized corps, they joined small parties that went 
out on single enterprises of retaliation, mounted on their 
own horses and carrying their own weapons. 



10 GENERAL JACKSON. 

The activity and zeal of the Waxhaw Whigs coming 
to the ears of Lord Rawdon, whom Cornwallis had left 
in command, he dispatched a small body of dragoons to 
aid the Tories of that infected neighborhood. The Wax- 
haw people, hearing of the approach of this hostile force, 
resolved upon resisting it in open fight, and named the 
Waxhaw meeting-house as the rendezvous. Forty Whigs 
assembled on the appointed day, mounted and armed, 
and among them were Robert and Andrew Jackson. In 
the grove about the old church these forty were waiting 
for the arrival — hourly expected — of another company 
of Whigs from a neighboring settlement. The British 
officer in command of the dragoons, apprised of the ren- 
dezvous by a Tory of the neighborhood, determined to 
surprise the patriot party before the two companies had 
united. Before coming in sight of the church, he placed 
a body of Tories wearing the dress of the country far 
in advance of his soldiers, and so marched upon the de- 
voted band. The Waxhaw party saw a company of 
armed men approaching, but, concluding them to be 
their expected friends, made no preparations for defense. 
Too late the error was discovered. Eleven of the forty 
were taken prisoners, and the rest sought safety in flight, 
fiercely pursued by the dragoons. The brothers were 
separated. Andrew found himself galloping for life and 
liberty by the side of his cousin, Lieutenant Thomas 
Crawford, a dragoon close behind them, and others 
coming rapidly on. They tore along the road awhile, 
and then took to a swampy field, where they came soon 
to a wide slough of water and mire, into which they 
plunged their horses. Andrew floundered across, and on 
reaching dry land again looked round for his compan- 
ion, whose horse had sunk into the mire and fallen. He 
saw him entangled, and trying vainly to ward off the 
blows of his pursuers with his sword. Before Andrew 



DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 1 1 

could turn to assist him the lieutenant received a severe 
wound in the head, which compelled him to give up the 
contest and surrender. The youth put spurs to his 
horse and succeeded in eluding pursuit. Robert, too, 
escaped unhurt, and in the course of the day the brothers 
were reunited, and took refuge in a thicket, in which 
they passed a hungry and anxious night. 

The next morning the pangs of hunger compelled 
them to leave their safe retreat and go in quest of food. 
The nearest house was that of Lieutenant Crawford. 
Leaving their horses and arms in the thicket, the lads 
crept toward the house, which they reached in safety. 
Meanwhile, a Tory traitor of the neighborhood had 
scented out their lurking-place, found their horses and 
weapons, and set a party of dragoons upon their track. 
Before the family had a suspicion of danger, the house 
was surrounded, the doors were secured, and the boys 
were prisoners. 

A scene ensued which left an impression upon the 
mind of one of the boys which time never effaced. Re- 
gardless of the fact that the house was occupied by the 
defenseless wife and young children of a wounded sol- 
dier, the dragoons, brutalized by this mean partisan 
warfare, began to destroy, with wild riot and noise, the 
contents of the house. Crockery, glass, and furniture 
were dashed to pieces, beds emptied, the clothing of 
the family torn to rags ; even the clothes of the infant 
that Mrs. Crawford carried in her arms were not spared. 
While this destruction was going on, the officer in com- 
mand of the party ordered Andrew to clean his high 
jack-boots, which were well splashed and crusted with 
mud. The boy replied, not angrily, though with a cer- 
tain firmness and decision, in something like these words : 

" Sir, I am a prisoner of war, and claim to be treated 
as such." 



12 GENERAL JACKSON. 

The officer aimed a desperate blow at the boy's head 
with his sword. Andrew broke the force of the blow 
with his left hand, and thus received two wounds — one 
deep gash on his head and another on his hand, the 
marks of both of which he carried to his grave. The 
officer, after achieving this gallant feat, turned to Rob- 
ert Jackson and ordered him to clean the boots. Robert 
also refused. The valiant Briton struck the young man 
so violent a sword-blow upon the head, as to prostrate 
and disable him. 

Andrew was ordered to mount, and to guide some of 
the party to the house of a noted Whig of the vicinity 
named Thompson. Threatened with instant death if he 
failed to guide them aright, the youth submitted, and 
led the party in the right direction. A timely thought 
enabled him to be the deliverer of his neighbor instead 
of his captor. Instead of approaching the house by the 
usual road, he conducted the party by a circuitous route, 
which brought them in sight of the house half a mile 
before they reached it. Andrew well knew that, if 
Thompson was at home, he would be sure to have some 
one on the lookout, and a horse ready for the road. On 
coming in sight of the house he saw Thompson's horse, 
saddled and bridled, standing at a rack in the yard, 
which informed him both that the master was there and 
that he was prepared for flight. The dragoons dashed 
forward to seize their prey. While they were still some 
hundreds of yards from the house, Andrew had the de- 
light of seeing Thompson burst from his door, run to his 
horse, mount, and plunge into a foaming, swollen creek 
that rushed by his house. He gained the opposite shore, 
and, seeing that the dragoons dared not attempt the 
stream, gave a shout of defiance and galloped into the 
woods. 

The elation caused by the success of his stratagem 



DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 



13 



was soon swallowed up in misery. Andrew and Robert 
Jackson, Lieutenant Thomas Crawford, and twenty other 
prisoners, all the victims of this raid of the dragoons 
into the Waxhaws, were placed on horses stolen in the 
same settlement and marched toward Camden, South 
Carolina, a great British depot at the time, forty miles 
distant. It was a long and agonizing journey, especially 
to the wounded, among whom were the Jacksons and 
their cousin. Not an atom of food nor a drop of water 
was allowed them on the way. Such was the brutality of 
the soldiers, that when these miserable lads tried to scoop 
up a little water from the streams which they forded, to 
appease their raging thirst, they were ordered to desist. 

At Camden their situation was one of utter wretch- 
edness. Two hundred and fifty prisoners in a contracted 
inclosure drawn around the jail ; no beds of any descrip- 
tion ; no medicine ; no medical attendance, nor means of 
dressing the wounds; their only food a scanty supply 
of bad bread. They were robbed even of part of their 
clothing, besides being subject to the taunts and threats 
of every passing Tory. The three relatives, it is said, 
were separated as soon as their relationship was discov- 
ered. Miserable among the miserable ; gaunt, yellow, 
hungry, and sick ; robbed of his jacket and shoes ; ig- 
norant of his brother's fate; chafing with suppressed 
fury, Andrew passed now some of the most wretched 
days of his life. Ere long the smallpox — a disease un- 
speakably terrible at that day, more terrible than chol- 
era or plague has ever been — broke out among the 
prisoners, and raged unchecked by medicine and unal- 
leviated by any kind of attendance or nursing. The sick 
and the well, the dying and the dead, those shuddering 
at the first symptoms and those putrid with the disease, 
were mingled together; and all but the dead were 
equally miserable. 



14 GENERAL JACKSON. 

For some time Andrew escaped the contagion. He 
was reclining one day in the sun, near the entrance of 
the prison, when the officer of the guard, attracted, as it 
seemed, by the youthfulness of his appearance, entered 
into conversation with him. The lad soon began to 
speak of that of which his heart was full — the condition 
of the prisoners and the bad quality of their food. He 
remonstrated against their treatment with such energy 
and feeling that the officer seemed to be moved and 
shocked, and, what was far more important, he was in- 
duced to ferret out the villainy of the contractors w^ho 
had been robbing the prisoners of their rations. From 
the day of Andrew's remonstrance the condition of the 
prisoners was ameliorated ; they were supplied with 
meat and better bread, and were otherwise better cared 
for. 

Andrew's spirits sank under this accumulation of 
miseries, and he began to sicken with the first symptoms 
of the smallpox. Robert was in a condition still worse. 
The wound in his head had never been dressed, and had 
not healed. He, too, reduced as he was, began to shiver 
and burn with the fever that announces the dread dis- 
ease. Another week of prison life would have probably 
consigned both these boys to the grave. But they had 
a friend outside the prison — their mother, who at this 
crisis of their fate strove with the might of love for 
their deliverance. Learning their forlorn condition, this 
heroic woman went to Camden, and succeeded, after a 
time, in effecting an exchange of prisoners between a 
Waxhaw captain and the British general. The Whig cap- 
tain gave up thirteen soldiers whom he had captured in 
the rear of the British army, and received in return the 
two sons of Mrs. Jackson and five of her neighbors. When 
the little family were reunited in the town of Camden, 
the mother could but gaze upon her boys with astonish- 



DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 



15 



ment and horror — so worn and wasted were they with 
hunger, wounds, and disease. Robert could not stand, 
or even sit on horseback, without support. 

The mother, however, had no choice but to get them 
home immediately. Two horses were procured. One 
she rode herself. Robert was placed upon the other, 
and held in his seat by the returning prisoners to whom 
Mrs. Jackson had just given liberty. Behind the sad 
procession poor Andrew dragged his weak and weary 
limbs, bareheaded, barefooted, without a jacket, his 
only two garments torn and dirty. The forty miles of 
lonely wilderness that lay between Camden and Waxhaw 
were nearly traversed, and the fevered lads were expect- 
ing in two hours more to enjoy the bliss of repose, when 
a chilly, drenching, merciless rain set in. When this oc- 
curred, the smallpox had reached that stage of develop- 
ment when, after having raged within the system, it was 
about to break out in those loathsome sores which give 
vent to the disease. The boys reached home and went 
to bed. In two days Robert Jackson was a corpse and 
his brother Andrew a raving maniac. A mother's nurs- 
ing, medical skill, and a constitution sound at the core, 
brought the youth out of this peril, and set him upon the 
way to slow recovery. He was an invalid for several 
months. 

In the summer of 1781 a great cry of anguish and 
despair came up to Waxhaw from the Charleston prison- 
ships, wherein, among many hundreds of other prisoners, 
were confined some of the sons of Mrs. Jackson's sisters, 
and other friends and neighbors of hers from the Wax- 
haw country. Mrs. Jackson had seen at Camden what 
prisoners of war may suffer. She had also seen what a 
little vigor and tact can effect in the deliverance of pris- 
oners. Andrew was no sooner quite out of danger than 
his brave mother resolved to go to Charleston (distant 



1 5 GENERAL JACKSON. 

one hundred and sixty miles) and do what she could for 
the comfort of the prisoners there. The tradition of the 
neighborhood now is that she performed the entire jour- 
ney on foot, in company with two other women of like 
mind and purpose. It is more probable, however, and 
so thought General Jackson, that these gallant women 
rode on horseback, carrying with them a precious store 
of gifts and rural luxuries and medicines for the solace 
of their imprisoned relatives, and bearing tender mes- 
sages and precious news from home. Protected by 
being unprotected, they reached Charleston in safety, 
gained admission to the ships, emptied their hearts and 
saddle-bags, and brought such joy to the haggard pris- 
oners as only prisoners know when women from home 
visit them. 

And there the history of this expedition ends. This 
only is further known of it, or will ever be : While stop- 
ping at the house of a relative, William Barton by name, 
who lived two miles and a half from Charleston, Mrs. 
Jackson was seized with the ship fever, and, after a 
short illness, died, and was buried on the open plain 
near by. 

And so Andrew, before reaching his fifteenth birth- 
day, was an orphan ; a sick and sorrowful orphan ; a 
homeless and dependent orphan. 



CHAPTER III. 

HE STUDIES LAW, AND BECOMES A TENNESSEE LAWYER. 

CoRNWALLis surrendered at Yorktown on the 19th 
of October, 1781. Savannah remained in the enemy's 
hands nine months, and Charleston fourteen months 
after that event ; but the war, in effect, terminated then, 
North and South. The Waxhaw people who survived 
returned to their homes, and resumed the vocations 
which the war had interrupted. 

With returning health returned the frolicsome spirit 
of the youth, which now began to seek gratification in 
modes less innocent than the sportive feats of his school- 
boy days. Several Charleston families of wealth and 
social eminence were living in the neighborhood, waiting 
for the evacuation of their city. With the young men 
of these families Jackson became acquainted, and led a 
life with them, in the summer and autumn of 1782, that 
was more merry than wise. He was betrayed by their 
example and his own pride into habits of expense, which 
wasted his small resources. That passion for horses, 
which never left him, began to show itself. He ran 
races and rode races, gambled a little, drank a little, 
fought cocks occasionally, and comported himself in the 
style usually affected by dissipated young men of that 
day. 

In December, 1782, to the joy and exultation of all 
the Southern country, Charleston was evacuated, and 
its scattered Whig families were free to return to their 



1 8 GENERAL JACKSON. 

homes. Andrew, finding the country dull after the de- 
parture of his gay companions, suddenly resolved to 
follow them to the city. He mounted his horse, a-fine 
and valuable animal that he had contrived to possess, 
and rode to Charleston through the wilderness. There, 
it appears, he remained long enough to expend his slen- 
der stock of money and run up a long bill with his 
landlord. He was saved from total ruin by a curious 
incident, which is thus related by one who heard it from 
himself: "He had strolled one evening down the street 
and was carried into a place where some persons were 
amusing themselves at a game of dice, and much betting 
was in progress. He was challenged for a game by a 
person present, by whom a proposal was made to stake 
two hundred dollars against the fine horse on which 
Jackson had come to Charleston. After some delibera- 
tion he accepted the challenge. Fortune was on his side ; 
the wager was won and paid. He forthwith departed, 
settled his bill next morning, and returned to his home. 
*My calculation,' said he, speaking of this incident, 'was 
that, if a loser in the game, I would give the landlord 
my saddle and bridle, as far as they would go toward 
the payment of his bill, ask a credit for the balance, and 
walk away from the city ; but being successful, I had 
new spirits infused into me, left the table, and from that 
moment to the present time I have never thrown dice 
for a wager.' " 

Upon the return of the young man to the home 
of his childhood he evidently took hold of life more 
earnestly than he had done before. He made some at- 
tempts, it is said, to continue his studies. Three entirely 
credible informants testify that Andrew Jackson was a 
schoolmaster at this period of his life. Nothing is more 
certain than that part of the small cash capital upon 
which he started in his career was earned amid the hum 



HE STUDIES LAW. ig 

and bustle of an old-field school. It is the more certain, 
as the uniform tradition of the Waxhaw country is that 
he was a very poor young man, who inherited nothing 
from his father, because his father had nothing to leave. 
The tradition at Charlotte is, that when young Andrew 
attended Queen's College he often passed down the 
street to school with his trousers too ragged to keep 
his shirt from flying in the wind. 

For a year certainly, and probably for two years, 
after Andrew's return from Charleston he remained in the 
Waxhaw country, employed either in teaching school or 
in some less worthy occupation. Peace was formally 
proclaimed in April, 1783. Some time between the 
proclamation of peace and the winter of i784-'85, Andrew 
Jackson resolved upon studying law. In that winter he 
gathered together his earnings and whatever property 
he may have possessed, mounted his horse again, and 
set his face northward in quest of a master in the law 
under whom to pursue his studies. He rode to Salis- 
bury, North Carolina, a distance of seventy-five miles 
from the Waxhaws. 

At Salisbury he entered the law olBce of Mr. Spruce 
McCay, an eminent lawyer at that time, and in later 
days a judge of high distinction, who is still remembered 
with honor in North Carolina. 

In one of the back streets of this old town, on the 
lawn in front of one of its largest and handsomest man- 
sions, close to the street and to the left of the gate, 
stood, in 1858, a little box of a house fifteen feet by six- 
teen, and one story high. It was built of shingles, 
several of which had decayed and fallen off. This little 
decaying house of shingles was the law of^ce of Spruce 
McCay when Andrew Jackson studied law under him 
at Salisbury, in 1785 and 1786. The mansion behind it 
stands on the site of the house in which Mr. McCay 



20 GENERAL JACKSON. 

lived at the time, and the property is still owned and 
occupied by a near connection of his, who has preserved 
the old office from regard to his memory. 

Our student completed his preparation for the bar in 
the office of Colonel John Stokes, a brave soldier of the 
Revolution, and afterward a lawyer of high repute, from 
whom Stokes County, North Carolina, took its name. 
Colonel Stokes was one of those who fell covered with 
wounds at the Waxhaw massacre in 1780, and may 
have been nursed in the old meeting-house by Mrs. 
Jackson and her sons. Before the spring of 1787, about 
two years after beginning the study of the law, Andrew 
Jackson was licensed to practice in the courts of North 
Carolina. He was twenty years of age when he com- 
pleted the preliminary part of his education at Salis- 
bury. He had grown to be a tall fellow. He stood 
six feet and an inch in his stockings. He was remark- 
ably slender for that robust age of the world, but he 
was also remarkably erect, so that his form had the 
effect of symmetry without being symmetrical. His 
movements and carriage were graceful and dignified. 
In the accomplishments of his day and sphere he ex- 
celled the young men of his own circle, and was re- 
garded by them as their chief and model. He was an 
exquisite horseman, as all will agree who ever saw him 
on horseback. Jefferson tells us that General Washing- 
ton was the best horseman of his time, but he could 
scarcely have been a more graceful or a more daring 
rider than Jackson. From early bo'yhood to extreme 
old age he was the master and friend of horses. 

He was far from handsome. His face was long, thin, 
and fair; his forehead high and somewhat narrow; his 
hau", reddish-sandy in color, was exceedingly abundant, 
and fell down low over his forehead. The bristling hair 
of the ordinary portraits belongs to the latter half of his 



HE STUDIES LAW. 21 

life. There was but one feature of his face that was not 
commonplace — his eyes, which were of a deep blue, and 
capable of blazing with great expression when he was 
roused. 

The truth is, this young man was one of those who 
convey to strangers the impression that they are "some- 
body"; who naturally, and without thinking of it, take 
the lead ; who are invited or permitted to take it as a 
matter of course. 

Finding no opportunity to practice his profession 
in the old settlements, young Jackson resolved to join 
a large party of emigrants bound for that part of the 
Western country which is now the State of Tennessee, 
but which was then Washington County, North Caro- 
lina. John McNairy, a friend of Jackson's, had been 
appointed judge of the Superior Court for that vast 
region, and Jackson was invested with the office of 
solicitor, or public prosecutor, for the same district. 
This office was not in request, nor desirable. It was, 
in fact, difficult to get a suitable person to accept an 
appointment of the kind, which was to be exercised in 
a wilderness five hundred miles distant from the pop- 
ulous parts of North Carolina, and where the office of 
prosecutor was sure to be unpopular, difficult, and dan- 
gerous. Thomas Searcy, another of Jackson's friends, 
received the appointment of clerk of the court. Three 
or four more of his young acquaintances, lawyers and 
others, resolved to go with him and seek their fortune 
in the new and vaunted country of the West. The party 
rendezvoused at Morganton in the spring or early sum- 
mer of 1788, mounted and equipped for a ride over the 
mountains to Jonesboro, then the chief settlement of 
East Tennessee, and the first halting-place of companies 
bound to the lands on the Cumberland River. 

The judge and his party remained several weeks at 



22 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Jonesboro, waiting for the assembling of a sufficient 
number of emigrants, and for the arrival of a guard 
from Nashville to escort them. Nashville is one hundred 
and eighty-three miles from Jonesboro. The road ran 
through a gap in the Cumberland Mountains, and thence 
entered a wilderness more dangerously infested with 
hostile Indians than any other portion of the Western 
country, not even excepting the dark and bloody land 
of Kentucky. 

Before the end of October, 1788, the long train of emi- 
grants, among whom was Mr. Solicitor Jackson, reached 
Nashville, to the great joy of the settlers there, to whom 
the annual arrival of such a train was all that an arrival 
can be — a thrilling event, news from home, reunion with 
friends, increase of wealth, and additional protection 
against a foe powerful and resolute to destroy. 

The settlement grew apace, however. When Jack- 
son arrived, the stations along the Cumberland may 
have contained five thousand souls or more. But the 
place was still an outpost of civilization, and so exposed 
to Indian hostility that it was not safe to live five miles 
from the central stockade — a circumstance that influ- 
enced the whole career and life of our young friend the 
newly-arrived solicitor. 

When young Jackson reached the settlement he 
found the Widow Donelson living there in a blockhouse, 
somewhat more commodious than any other dwelling in 
the place ; for she was a notable housekeeper, as well as 
a woman of property. With her then lived her daughter 
Rachel and her Kentucky husband, Lewis Robards. 

The presence of the young lawyer at Nashville was 
most opportune. The only licensed lawyer in West 
Tennessee was engaged exclusively in the service of 
debtors, who, it seems, made common cause against the 
common enemy, their creditors. Jackson came not as a 



HE STUDIES LAW. 



23 



lawyer merely, but as the public prosecutor, and there 
was that in his bearing which gave assurance that he was 
the man to issue unpopular writs and give them effect. 

In the four terms of 1794 there were three hundred 
and ninety-seven eases before the same court, in two 
hundred and twenty-eight of which Jackson acted as 
counsel. And during these and later years he practiced 
at the courts of Jonesboro, and other towns in East 
Tennessee. 

In the year 1791 the prosperous young solicitor, after 
a courtship of an extraordinary character, was married 
to Mrs. Rachel Robards, the daughter of that brave old 
pioneer, John Donelson. 

As Tennessee prospered (and it prospered rapidly 
after the Indians were subdued, in 1794), the district 
attorney could not but prosper with it. The land records 
of 1794, 1795, 1796, and 1797 show that it was during 
those years that Jackson laid the foundation of the large 
estate which he subsequently acquired. Those were the 
days in which a lawyer's fee for conducting a suit of no 
great importance might be a square mile of land, or, in 
Western phrase, a " six-forty." Jackson appears fre- 
quently in the records of the years named as the pur- 
chaser and assignee of sections of land. He bought six 
hundred and fifty acres of the fine tract which afterward 
formed the Hermitage farm for eight hundred dollars — 
a high price for that day. By the time that Tennessee 
entered the Union, in 1796, Jackson was a very extensive 
landowner, and a man of fair estate for a frontiers- 
man. 

The office of public prosecutor, held by Andrew 
Jackson during the first seven or eight years of his resi- 
dence in Tennessee, was one that a man of only ordinary 
nerve and courage could not have filled. It set in array 
against him all the scoundrels in the Territory. Those 



24 GENERAL JACKSON. 

were the times when a notorious criminal would defy 
the officers of justice, and keep them at bay for years at 
a time ; when a district attorney who made himself too 
officious was liable to a shot in the back as he rode to 
court ; when two men, not satisfied with the court's 
award, would come out of the court-house into the pub- 
lic square and fight it out in the presence of the whole 
population, judge and jury, perhaps, looking on ; when 
the public prosecutor was apt to be regarded as the man 
whose office it was to spoil good sport and interfere be- 
tween gentlemen. 



CHAPTER IV. 

IN PUBLIC LIFE, AND AS A MAN OF BUSINESS. 

In November, 1795, the Governor of the Territory 
announced, as the result of a census ordered by the Legis- 
lature, that Tennessee contained seventy-seven thousand 
two hundred and sixty-two inhabitants, of whom ten 
thousand six hundred and thirteen were slaves. He 
therefore called upon the people to elect delegates to 
a convention for making a Constitution, and named Jan- 
uary II, 1796, as the day for their assembling at Knox- 
ville. The convention met accordingly, fifty-five mem- 
bers in all, five from each of the eleven counties. The 
five members sent from Davidson County were John 
McNairy, Andrew Jackson, James Robertson, Thomas 
Hardeman, and Joel Lewis. 

The State was promptly organized. A Legislature 
was elected, and " Citizen John Sevier," we are officially 
informed, was chosen the first Governor. On the ist of 
June, 1796, Tennessee became the sixteenth member 
of the confederacy. Three presidential electors were 
chosen, who cast the vote of the State for Jefferson and 
Burr. As yet, Tennessee was entitled to but one mem- 
ber of the House of Representatives. Early in the fall 
of 1796 Andrew Jackson was elected by the people to 
serve them in that honorable capacity. Soon after — for 
the journey was a long one, and more difficult than long 
— he mounted his horse and set out for Philadelphia, 
distant nearly eight hundred miles. 



26 GENERAL JACKSON. 

The member from Tennessee reached Philadelphia 
at one of those periods of commercial depression to 
which the country has always been liable. The finan- 
cial reader is aware that the suspension of specie pay- 
ments by the Bank of England, which lasted twenty-two 
years, began in February, 1797, about two months after 
Jackson's arrival in Philadelphia. 

On the third day of the session, a quorum of the 
Senate having reached Philadelphia, and both Houses 
being assembled in the Representatives' chamber, Jack- 
son saw General Washington, an august and venerable 
form, enter the chamber and deliver his last speech to 
Congress; heard him recommend the gradual creation 
of a navy for the protection of American commerce in 
the Mediterranean against the pirates of Algiers ; heard 
him modestly — almost timidly — suggest that American 
manufactures ought to be at least so far encouraged 
and aided by Government as to render the country inde- 
pendent of foreign nations in time of war; heard him 
recommend the establishment of boards of agriculture, 
a national university, and a military academy; heard 
him mildly object to the policy of paying low salaries to 
high officers, to the exclusion from high office of all but 
men of fortune; and heard him denounce the spoliations 
of our commerce by cruisers sailing under the flag of 
the French Republic. 

At that day it was customary for each House to pre- 
pare, and in person deliver, a formal reply to the Presi- 
dent's opening speech. An address was drawn up which 
concluded with a series of paragraphs highly eulogistic 
not merely of the retiring President but of his adminis- 
tration. The more radical Democrats, of whom Jackson 
was one, objected, and, after two days' animated discus- 
sion, Edward Livingston brought the debate to an end 
by distinctly moving to strike out the words, "wise, 



IN publk: life, and as a man of business. 



27 



firm, and patriotic administration ", and to insert in 
their place, "your firmness, wisdom, and patriotism." 
The question was taken on Mr. Livingston's amend- 
ment, and decided in the negative. The whole address 
was then read with the slight amendments previously- 
ordered, and the question was about to be submitted as 
to its final acceptance, when Mr. Thomas Blount, of 
North Carolina, demanded the yeas and nays, in order 
that posterity might see that he did not consent to the 
address. The yeas and nays were then taken, with this 
result : For accepting the address, sixty-seven votes ; 
against its acceptance, twelve. The following gentle- 
men voted against it : Thomas Blount, Isaac Coles, Wil- 
liam B. Giles, Christopher Greenup, James Holland, An- 
drew Jackson, Edward Livingston, Matthew Locke, 
William Lyman, Samuel Maclay, Nathaniel Macon, and 
Abraham Venable. 

Jackson's vote on this occasion merely shows that in 
1796 he belonged to the most radical wing of the Jeffer- 
sonian party, the '* Mountain " of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

On Thursday, December 29, 1796, the member from 
Tennessee first addressed the House. In 1793, while 
Tennessee was still a Territory under the Federal Gov- 
ernment, General Sevier, induced thereto by extreme 
provocation and the imminent peril of the settlements, 
led an expedition against the Indians without waiting 
for the authorization of the General Government. One 
of those who served on this expedition was a young 
student by the name of Hugh L. White, afterward judge, 
senator, and candidate for the presidency. Young 
White killed a great chief, the Kingfisher, in battle. 
After the return of the expedition it became a question 
whether the Government would pay the expenses of an 
expedition which it had not authorized. To test the 



28 GENERAL JACKSON. 

question, Hugh L. White sent a petition to Congress 
asking compensation for his services. On the day 
named above the subject came before the Committee of 
the Whole House, when a report on Mr. White's petition, 
from the Secretary of War, was read. The report re- 
counted the facts, and added that it was for the House 
to decide whether the provocation and danger were 
such as to justify the calling out of the troops. Where- 
upon " Mr. A. Jackson," in a few energetic remarks, 
defended the claims of his fellow-citizens. The debate 
continued for a considerable time, Jackson occasionally 
interposing explanations, and replying to the objections 
of members. The result of his exertions was, that the 
subject was referred to a select committee of five, Mr. A. 
Jackson chairman ; who reported, of course, in favor of 
the petitioner, and recommended that the sum of twenty- 
two thousand eight hundred and sixteen dollars be ap- 
propriated for the payment of the troops, which was 
done. 

The member from Tennessee did not again address 
the House of Representatives. His name appears in the 
records thenceforth only in the lists of yeas and nays. 

Congress adjourned on the 3d of March, and An- 
drew Jackson took a final farewell of the House, for at 
the war session of the following summer he did not ap- 
pear. His conduct in the House of Representatives was 
keenly approved by Tennesseeans. 

A vacancy in the Senate of the United States occur- 
ring this year, Andrew Jackson received the appoint- 
ment, and returned to I'hiladelphia in the autumn of 
1797, a Senator. 

In April, 1798, Senator Jackson asked and obtained 
leave of absence for the remainder of the session. He 
went home to Nashville, and immediately resigned his 
seat in the Senate. 



IN PUBLIC LIFE, AND AS A MAN OF BUSINESS. 29 

Early in the year 1798, then, Andrew Jackson re- 
turned to his home on the banks of the Cumberland, a 
private citizen, and intending to remain such. But it 
seems he could not yet be spared from public life. Soon 
after his return to Tennessee he was elected by the Legis- 
lature to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of 
the State — a post which he said he accepted in obedience 
to his favorite maxim, that the citizen of a free com- 
monwealth should never seek and never decline public 
duty. The office assigned him was next in considera- 
tion, as in emolument, to thatNof Governor ; the Govern- 
or's salary being seven hundred and fifty dollars a year, 
and the judge's six hundred. He retained the judgeship 
for six years, holding courts in due succession at Jones- 
boro, Knoxville, Nashville, and at places of less im- 
portance, dispensing the best justice of which he was 
master. 

It was while Jackson was judge of the Supreme Court 
of Tennessee that his feud with Governor Sevier came to 
an issue. First, there was a coolness between the two 
men ; then altercations ; then total estrangement ; then 
loud, recriminating talk on both sides, reported to both ; 
then various personal encounters, of which I heard in 
Tennessee so many different accounts that I was con- 
vinced no one knew anything about them. At last, in 
the year 1801, Jackson gained an advantage over Sevier 
which was peculiarly calculated to wound, disgust, and 
exasperate the impetuous old soldier, victor in so many 
battles. Sevier was then out of office. The major-gen- 
eralship of militia was vacant, and the two belligerents 
were candidates for the post, which at that time was 
keenly coveted by the very first men in the State. Nor 
was it then merely an affair of title, regimentals, and 
showy gallopings on the days of general muster. There 
were then Indians to be kept in awe, as well as constant 



20 GENERAL JACKSON, 

rumors and threatenings of war with France or England. 
The office of major-general was in the gift of the field 
officers, who were empowered by the Constitution to se- 
lect their chief. The canvassings and general agitation 
which preceded the election on this occasion may be im- 
agined. The day came. The election was held. There 
was a tie, an equal number of votes being cast for Jack- 
son and Sevier. In such a conjuncture the Governor of 
the State, being, from his office, commander-in-chief of 
the militia, had a casting vote. Governor Roane gave 
his vote for Jackson, who thus became the major-gen- 
eral, to the discomfiture of the other competitor. 

Jackson, as we have seen, accepted the judgeship of 
the Supreme Court, intending to carry on the business 
of a merchant, and to snatch time enough between his 
courts to make an occasional journey to Philadelphia 
for the purchase of a fresh supply of goods. For a 
while all went well with him; but eventually came the 
crash and panic of 1798 and 1799. Notice was for- 
warded to Jackson to provide for the payment of the 
notes with which he had bought his stock of goods. 
This was a staggering blow, not only because the 
amount of the loss was large, but because the notes 
had to be paid in money — real money, money that was 
current in Philadelphia — which, of all commodities, was 
the one most scarce in the new States of the far West. 
To the honor of Andrew Jackson be it recorded, that 
each of these large notes was paid, principal and in- 
terest, on the day of its maturity, 

Andrew Jackson was a man singularly averse to any- 
thing complicated, and of all complications the one un- 
der which he was most restive was debt. So, about the 
year 1804, he resolved upon simplifying or "straighten- 
ing out " his affairs and commencing life anew. He re- 
signed his judgeship. He sold his house and improved 



IN PUBLIC LIFE, AND AS A MAN OF BUSINESS. 31 

farm on Hunter's Hill. He sold twenty-five thousand 
acres, more or less, of his wild lands in other parts of 
the State. He paid off all his debts. He removed with 
his negroes, to the place now known as the Hermitage, 
and lived once more in a house of logs. He went more 
extensively into mercantile business than ever. 

Jackson was now a man with many irons in the fire. 
First, there was his farm, cultivated by slaves, superin- 
tended by Mrs. Jackson in the absence of her lord. The 
large family of slaves, one hundred and fifty in number, 
of which he died possessed, were mostly descended from 
the few that he owned in his storekeeping days. He 
was a vigilant and successful farmer. To use the lan- 
guage of the South, "He made good crops." He was 
proud of a well-cultivated field. Every visitor was in- 
vited to go the rounds of his farm and see his cotton, 
corn, and wheat, his horses, cows, and mules. He had 
also a backwoodsman's skill in repairing and contriv- 
ing, and spent many a day in putting an old plow in 
order or finishing off a new cabin. 

On his plantation he had a cotton gin, a rarity at 
that day, upon which there was a special tax of twenty 
dollars a year. The tax-books of Davidson County show 
that in 1804 there were but twenty-four gins in the 
county, of which Andrew Jackson was the owner of one. 
This cotton gin served to clean his own cotton, the cot- 
ton of his neighbors, and that which he took in exchange 
for goods. 

General Jackson's fine horses were also a source of 
profit to him. At that period a good horse was among 
the pioneer's first necessities and most valued posses- 
sions ; and to this day the horse is a creature of far 
more importance at the South, where every one rides 
and must ride on horseback, than at the North, where 
riding is the luxury of the few. 



32 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Soon after Jackson left the bench he set off for a 
tour in Virginia, then universally renowned for her breed 
of horses, with the sole object of procuring the most 
perfect horse in the country. The far-famed Truxton 
was the result of this journey — Truxton, winner of many 
a well-contested race and progenitor of a line of Trux- 
tons highly prized in Tennessee to this hour. 



CHAPTER V. 

DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 

The Revolutionary War introduced among the people 
of rustic America the practice of resorting to arms for 
the settlement of quarrels. Every man who had worn a 
sash or even shouldered a musket in that contest seems 
to have hugged the delusion that he was thenceforth 
subject to the code of honor. He retained the title and 
affected the tone of a soldier. I call it affectation, be- 
lieving that no man with Saxon blood dominant in his 
veins ever yet fought a duel without being distinctly 
conscious that he was doing a very silly thing. Yet 
there never existed a people so given to dueling and 
other domestic battling as the people of the South and 
West from 1790 to 1810. In Charleston, about the year 
1800, we are told, there was a club of duelists, in which 
every man took precedence according to the number of 
times he had been " out " — so difficult was it for the 
duelists to support the reproaches of their own good 
sense. " I believe," says General William Henry Harri- 
son, " that there were more duels in the Northwestern 
army between the years 1791 and 1795 than ever took 
place in the same length of time, and among so small a 
body of men as composed the commissioned officers of 
the army, either in America or any other country." 

As late as 1834, Miss Martineau tells us there were 
more duels fought in the city of New Orleans than there 
are days in the year — " fifteen on one Sunday morning " ; 



24 GENERAL JACKSON. 

" one hundred and two between the ist of January and 
the end of April." 

In the interior settlements, if dueling was rarer, fight- 
ing of a less formal and deadly character was so com- 
mon as to excite scarcely any notice or remark. It was 
taken for granted, apparently, that whenever a number 
of men were gathered together for any purpose what- 
ever there must be fighting. The meetings of the Legis- 
lature, the convening of courts, the assemblages out of 
doors for religious purposes, were all alike the occa- 
sion both of single combats and general fights. " The 
exercises of a market day," says the Rev. Mr. Milburn, 
" were usually varied by political speeches, a sheriff's 
sale, half a dozen free fights, and thrice as many horse- 
swaps." 

Let most of the old Jacksonian quarrels pass into 
oblivion. Some of them, however, were of such a na- 
ture, and are so notorious, that they can not be omitted 
in any fair account of his career. We have now arrived 
at one of these. The series of trivial and absurd events 
which led to the horrible tragedy of the Dickinson duel 
— events which, but for that tragic ending, would be noth- 
ing more than amusing illustrations of the manners of a 
past age — now claim our attention. 

For the autumn races of 1805, a great match was ar- 
ranged between General Jackson's Truxton and Captain 
Joseph Ervin's Plowboy. The stakes were two thousand 
dollars, payable on the day of the race in notes, which 
notes were to be then due; forfeit, eight hundred dollars. 
Six persons were interested in this race : on Truxton's 
side, General Jackson, Major W. P. Anderson, Major Ver- 
rell, and Captain Pryor; on the side of Plowboy, Captain 
Ervin and his son-in-law, Charles Dickinson. Before 
the day appointed for the race arrived Ervin and Dick- 
inson decided to pay the forfeit and withdraw their 



DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 



35 



horse, which was amicably done, and the affair was sup- 
posed to be at an end. 

About this time a report reached General Jackson's 
ears that Charles Dickinson had uttered disparaging 
words of Mrs. Jackson, which was with Jackson the sin 
not to be pardoned. Dickinson was a lawyer by profes- 
sion, but, like Jackson, speculated in produce, horses, 
and, it is said, in slaves. He was well connected, pos- 
sessed considerable property, and had a large circle of 
gay friends. He is represented as a somewhat wild, dis- 
sipated young man, yet not unamiable, nor disposed 
wantonly to wound the feelings of others. When excited 
by drink, or by any other cause, he was prone to talk 
loosely and swear violently, as drunken men will. He 
had the reputation of being the best shot in Tennessee. 
Upon hearing this report. General Jackson called on 
Dickinson and asked him if he had used the language 
attributed to him. Dickinson replied that if he had, it 
must have been when he was drunk. Further explana- 
tions and denials removed all ill feeling from General 
Jackson's mind, and they separated in a friendly manner. 

A second time, it is said, Dickinson uttered offensive 
words respecting Mrs. Jackson in a tavern at Nashville, 
which were duly conveyed by some meddling parasite 
to General Jackson. Jackson, I am told, then went to 
Captain Ervin and advised him to exert his influence 
over his son-in-law, and induce him to restrain his 
tongue and comport himself like a gentleman in his 
cups. "I wish no quarrel with him," said Jackson; "he 
is used by my enemies in Nashville, who are urging him 
on to pick a quarrel with me. Advise him to stop in 
time." It appears, however, that enmity grew between 
these two men. In January, 1806, when the events oc- 
curred that are now to be related, there was the worst 
possible feeling between them. 



36 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Deadly enmity existing between Jackson and Dickin- 
son, a very trivial event was sufficient to bring them 
into collision. A young lawyer of Nashville, named 
Swann, misled by false information, circulated a report 
that Jackson had accused the owners of Plowboy of pay- 
ing their forfeit in notes other than those which had 
been agreed upon — notes less valuable because not due 
at the date of settling. General Jackson, in one of his 
letters to Mr. Swann, went out of his way to assail 
Charles Dickinson by name, calling him " a base pol- 
troon and cowardly talebearer," requesting Swann to 
show Dickinson these offensive words, and offering to 
meet him in the field if he desired satisfaction for the 
same. Upon reading the letter, Dickinson published a 
card which contained these words : 

" I declare him, notwithstanding he is a major-gen- 
eral of the militia of Mero district, to be a worthless 
scoundrel, * a poltroon and a coward ' — a man who, by 
frivolous and evasive pretexts, avoided giving the satis- 
faction which was due to a gentleman whom he had in- 
jured. This has prevented me from calling on him in 
the manner I should otherwise have done, for I am well 
convinced that he is too great a coward to administer 
any of those anodynes he promised me in his letter to 
Mr. Swann." 

Jackson instantly challenged Dickinson. The chal- 
lenge was promptly accepted. Friday, May 30, 1806, 
was the day appointed fur the meeting ; the weapons, 
pistols ; the place, a spot on the banks of the Red River, 
in Kentucky. 

The place appointed for the meeting was a long day's 
ride from Nashville. Thursday morning, before the 
dawn of day, Dickinson stole from the side of his young 
and beautiful wife, and began silently to prepare for the 
journey. 



DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 



37 



He mounted his horse and repaired to the rendezvous 
where his second and half a dozen of the gay blades of 
Nashville were waiting to escort him on his journey. 
Away they rode, in the highest spirits, as though they 
were upon a party of pleasure. Indeed, they made a 
party of pleasure of it. When they stopped for rest or 
refreshment, Dickinson is said to have amused the com- 
pany by displaying his wonderful skill with the pistol. 
Once, at a distance of twenty-four feet, he fired four 
balls, each at the word of command, into a space that 
could be covered by a silver dollar. Several times he 
cut a string with his bullet from the same distance. It 
is said that he left a severed string hanging near a tav- 
ern, and said to the landlord, as he rode away, " If Gen- 
eral Jackson comes along this road, show him that ! " 

Very different was the demeanor of General Jackson 
and the party that accompanied him. His second. Gen- 
eral Thomas Overton, an old Revolutionary soldier, 
versed in the science and familiar with the practice of 
dueling, had reflected deeply upon the conditions of the 
coming combat, with the view to conclude upon the 
tactics most likely to save his friend from Dickinson's 
unerring bullet. For this duel was not to be the amus- 
ing mockery that some modern duels have been. This 
duel was to be real. It was to be an affair in which 
each man was to strive with his utmost skill to effect the 
purpose of the occasion — disable his antagonist and 
save his own life. As the principal and the second rode 
apart from the rest, they discussed all the chances and 
probabilities with the single aim to decide upon a course 
which should result in the disabling of Dickinson and 
the saving of Jackson. The mode of fighting which 
had been agreed upon was somewhat peculiar. The 
pistols were to be held downward until the word was 
given to fire; then each man was to fire as soon as he 
4 



38 GENERAL JACKSON. 

pleased. With such an arrangement it was scarcely pos- 
sible that both the pistols should be discharged at the 
same moment. There was a chance, even, that by ex- 
treme quickness of movement one man could bring 
down his antagonist without himself receiving a shot. 
The question anxiously discussed between Jackson and 
Overton was this : Shall we try to get the first shot, or 
shall we permit Dickinson to have it ? They agreed, at 
length, that it would be decidedly better to let Dickin- 
son fire first. 

Jackson ate heartily at supper that night, convers- 
ing in a lively, pleasant manner, and smoked his evening 
pipe as usual. Jacob Smith remembers being exceed- 
ingly well pleased with his guest, and, on learning the 
cause of his visit, heartily wishing him a safe deliverance. 
Before breakfast on the next morning the whole party 
mounted and rode down the road that wound close 
along the picturesque banks of the stream. The 
horsemen rode about a mile along the river, then 
turned down toward the river to a point on the bank 
where they had expected to find a ferryman. No ferry- 
man appearing, Jackson spurred his horse into the 
stream and dashed across, followed by all his party. 
They rode into the poplar forest two hundred yards or 
less, to a spot near the center of a level platform or 
river bottom, then covered with forest, now smiling with 
cultivated fields. The horsemen halted and dismount- 
ed just before reaching the appointed place. Jackson, 
Overton, and a surgeon who had come with them from 
home walked on together, and the rest led their horses 
a short distance in an opposite direction. 

" How do you feel about it now, general ? " asked 
one of the party, as Jackson turned to go.. 

" Oh, all right," replied Jackson, gayly ; " I shall 
wing him, never fear." 



DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 



39 



Dickinson's second won the choice of position, and 
Jackson's the office of giving the word. The astute 
Overton considered this giving of the word a matter of 
great importance, and he had already determined how 
he would give it if the lot fell to him. The eight paces 
were measured ofif and the men placed. Both were 
perfectly collected. All the politenesses of such occa- 
sions were very strictly and elegantly performed. Jack- 
son was dressed in a loose frock-coat, buttoned carelessly 
over his chest and concealing in some degree the ex- 
treme slenderness of his figure. Dickinson was the 
younger and handsomer man of the two. But Jackson's 
tall, erect figure, and the intensity of his demeanor, it 
is said, gave him a most superior and commanding air, 
as he stood under the tall poplars on this bright May 
morning, silently awaiting the moment. 

"Are you ready ?" said Overton. 

" I am ready," replied Dickinson. 

" I am ready," said Jackson. 

The words were no sooner pronounced than Overton, 
with a sudden shout, cried, using his old-country pro- 
nunciation : 

" Fere ! " 

Dickinson raised his pistol quickly and fired. Over- 
ton, who was looking with anxiety and dread at Jackson, 
saw a puff of dust fly from the breast of his coat, and 
saw him raise his left arm and place it tightly across his 
chest. He is surely hit, thought Overton, and in a bad 
place, too. But no ; he does not fall. He raised his 
pistol. Overton glanced at Dickinson. Amazed at the 
unwonted failure of his aim, and apparently appalled at 
the awful figure and face before him, Dickinson had un- 
consciously recoiled a pace or two. 

" Great God ! " he faltered, " have I missed 
him ? " 



40 GENERAL JACKSON. 

" Back to the mark, sir ! " shrieked Overton with his 
hand upon his pistol. 

Dickinson recovered his composure, stepped forward 
to the peg, and stood with his eyes averted from his an- 
tagonist. All this was the work of a moment, though it 
requires many words to tell it. 

General Jackson took deliberate aim and pulled the 
trigger. The pistol neither snapped nor went off. He 
looked at the trigger, and discovered that it had stopped 
at half-cock. He drew it back to its place and took 
aim a second time. He fired. Dickinson's face blanched ; 
he reeled ; his friends rushed toward him, caught him in 
their arms, and gently seated him on the ground, lean- 
ing against a bush. They stripped off his clothes. The 
blood was gushing from his side in a torrent. The ball 
had passed through the body, below the ribs. Such a 
wound could not but be fatal. 

Overton went forward and learned the condition of 
the wounded man. Rejoining his principal, he said, 
" He won't want anything more of you, general," and 
conducted him from the ground. They had gone a hun- 
dred yards, Overton walking on one side of Jackson, 
the surgeon on the other, and neither speaking a word, 
when the surgeon observed that one of Jackson's shoes 
was full of blood. 

" My God ! General Jackson, are you hit ? " he ex- 
claimed, pointing to the blood. 

" Oh ! I believe," replied Jackson, " that he has 
pinked me a little. Let's look at it. But say nothing 
about it there," pointing to the house. 

He opened his coat. Dickinson's aim had been 
perfect. He had sent the ball precisely where he sup- 
posed Jackson's heart was beating. But the thinness of 
his body and the looseness of his coat combining to de- 
ceive Dickinson, the ball had only broken a rib or two 



DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 41 

and raked the breast-bone. It was a somewhat painful, 
bad-looking wound, but neither severe nor dangerous, 
and he was able to ride to the tavern without much in- 
convenience. Upon approaching the house he went up 
to one of the negro women who was churning and asked 
her if the butter had come. She said it was just coming. 
He asked for some buttermilk. While she was getting 
it for him she observed him furtively open his coat and 
look within it. She saw that his shirt was soaked with 
blood, and she stood gazing in blank horror at the sight, 
dipper in hand. He caught her eye, and hastily but- 
toned his coat again. She dipped out a quart measure 
full of buttermilk and gave it to him. He drank it off 
at a draught; then went in, took, off his coat, and had 
his wound carefully examined and dressed. That done, 
he dispatched one of his retinue to Dr. Catlett, to in- 
quire respecting the condition of Dickinson, and to say 
that the surgeon attending himself would be glad to 
contribute his aid toward Mr. Dickinson's relief. Polite 
reply was returned that Mr. Dickinson's case was past 
surgery. In the course of the day General Jackson sent 
a bottle of wine to Dr. Catlett for the use of his patient. 

But there was one gratification which Jackson could 
not, even in. such circumstances, grant him. A very old 
friend of General Jackson writes to me thus: "Although 
the general had been wounded, he did not desire it 
should be known until he had left the neighborhood, 
and had therefore concealed it at first from his own 
friends. His reason for this, as he once stated to me, 
was, that as Dickinson considered himself the best shot 
in the world, and was certain of killing him at the first 
fire, he did not want him to have the gratification even 
of knowing that he had touched him." 

Poor Dickinson bled to death. 

General Jackson's wound proved to be more severe 



42 GENERAL JACKSON. 

and troublesome than was at first anticipated. It was 
nearly a month before he could move about without in- 
convenience, and when the wound healed it healed 
falsely ; that is, some of the viscera were slightly dis- 
placed, and so remained. Twenty years after, this for- 
gotten wound forced itself upon his remembrance, and 
kept itself there for many a year. 

It is not true, as has been alleged, that this duel did 
not affect General Jackson's popularity in Tennessee. 
It followed quick upon his feud with Governor Sevier, 
and both quarrels told against him in many quarters 
of the State. And though there were large numbers 
whom the nerve and courage which he had displayed 
in the duel blinded to all considerations of civilization 
and morality, yet it is certain that at no time between 
the years 1806 and 181 2 could General Jackson have 
been elected to any office in Tennessee that required 
a majority of the voters of the whole State. Beyond 
the circle of his own friends, which was large, there 
existed a very general impression that he was a violent, 
overbearing, passionate man. 



CHAPTER VI. 

AT HOME. 

Between the fighting of this bloody duel and the 
beginning of the War of 1812 there is not much to re- 
late of General Jackson. A few incidents and anecdotes 
of his private life may detain us a moment from the stir- 
ring scenes of his military career. 

He removed, as we have before related, from Hunt- 
er's Hill, about the year 1804, to the adjoining estate, 
which he named the Hermitage. The spacious mansion 
now standing on that estate, in which he resided during 
the last twenty-five years of his life, was not built until 
about the year 1819. A square, two-story blockhouse 
was General Jackson's first dwelling-place on the Her- 
mitage farm. This house, like many others of its class, 
contained three rooms — one on the ground floor and 
two upstairs. To this house was soon added a smaller 
one, which stood about twenty feet from the principal 
structure, and was connected with it by a covered pas- 
sage. This was General Jackson's establishment from 
1804 to 1819. 

In an establishment so restricted General Jackson 
and his good-hearted wife continued to dispense a most 
generous hospitality. A lady of Nashville told me that 
she has often been at the Hermitage in those simple old 
times, when there was in each of the four available 
rooms not a guest merely but a family; while the 
young men and solitary travelers who chanced to drop 



44 GENERAL JACKSON. 

in disposed of themselves on the piazza, or any other 
half shelter about the house. " Put down in your book," 
said one of General Jackson's oldest neighbors, "that 
the general was the prince of hospitality; not because 
he entertained a great many people, but because the 
poor, belated peddler was as welcome as the President 
of the United States, and made so much at his ease that 
he felt as though he had got home." 

On May 29, 1805, Colonel Burr, then making his first 
tour of the Western country, visited the thriving frontier 
town of Nashville. Throughout the West Burr was re- 
ceived as the great man, and nowhere with such distinc- 
tion as at Nashville. People poured in from the adjacent 
country to see and welcome so renowned a personage. 
Flags, cannons, and martial music contributed to the 
^clat of his reception. An extemporized but superabun- 
dant dinner concluded the ceremonies, in the course of 
which Burr addressed the multitude with the serious 
grace that usually marked his demeanor in public. Could 
Jackson be absent from such an ovation — Jackson, who 
had been with the great man in Congress, and worked 
in concert with him for Tennessee ? On the morning of 
this bright day General Jackson mounted one of his 
finest horses and rode to Nashville, attended by a servant 
leading a milk-white mare. In the course of the dinner 
General Jackson gave a toast, " Millions for defense, 
but not one cent for tribute ! " and when Colonel Burr 
retired from the apartment General Overton proposed 
his health to the company. General Jackson returned 
home at the close of the day, accompanied by Colonel 
Burr, who was to be his guest during his stay in that 
vicinity. Burr remained only five days at the Hermit- 
age, but promised to make a longer visit on his return. 

On August 6, 1805, Burr visited the Hermitage 
again on his return from New Orleans, as he had prom- 



AT HOME. 



45 



ised. Of this visit, which lasted eight days, we have 
no knowledge except that derived from Burr's diary: 
"Arrived at Nashville on the 6th August. For a week 
I have been lounging at the house of General Jackson, 
once a lawyer, after a judge, now a planter ; a man of 
intelligence, and one of those prompt, frank, ardent 
souls whom I love to meet. The general has no chil- 
dren, but two lovely nieces made a visit of some days, 
contributed greatly to my amusement, and have cured 
me of all the evils of my wilderness jaunt. If I had 
time I would describe to you these two girls, for they 
deserve it. To-morrow I move on toward Lexington." 
There is no doubt as to the topic upon which Colonel 
Burr and General Jackson chiefly conversed on this oc- 
casion. There was but one topic then in the Western 
country — the threatened war with Spain. 

Colonel Burr returned to the East. Months passed, 
during which Jackson and Burr occasionally corre- 
sponded. 

In September, 1806, three months after the duel with 
Dickinson, Colonel Burr was again the guest of General 
Jackson. On this occasion he had brought to the West- 
ern country, and left on Blennerhassett Island, his daugh- 
ter Theodosia, intending never again to return to the 
Eastern States. He was in the full tide of preparation 
for descending to the lower country. The morning 
after his arrival at the Hermitage, General Jackson, on 
hospitable thoughts intent, wrote to a friend in Nash- 
ville the following note : "Colonel Burr is with me ; he 
arrived last night. I would be happy if you would call 
and see the colonel before you return. Say to General 
O. that I shall expect to see him here on to-morrow with 
you. Would it not be well for us to do something as a 
mark of attention to the colonel ? He has always been 
and is still a true and trusty friend to Tennessee. If Gen- 



^6 GENERAL JACKSON. 

eral Robertson is with you when you receive this, be 
good enough to say to him that Colonel Burr is in the 
country. I know that General Robertson will be happy 
in joining in anything that will tend to show a mark of 
respect to this worthy visitant." 

After a stay of a few days Colonel Burr left Ten- 
nessee to take up the threads of his enterprise in Ken- 
tucky and Ohio. 

October passed by. On the 3d of November, Gen- 
eral Jackson, in his character of business man, received 
from Burr some important orders : one for the building, 
on Stone's River, at Clover Bottom, of five large boats, 
such as were then used for descending the Western rivers, 
and another for the gradual purchase of a large quantity 
of provisions for transportation in those boats. A sum 
of money, in Kentucky bank-notes, amounting to three 
thousand five hundred dollars, accompanied the orders. 
General Jackson, nothing doubting, and never reluctant 
to do business, took Burr's letter of directions and the 
money to his partner, John Coffee, and requested him to 
contract at once for the boats and prepare for the pur- 
chase of the provisions. Coffee proceeded forthwith to 
transact the business. I notice, also, that Patton Ander- 
son, one of Jackson's special intimates, was all activity 
in raising a company of young men to accompany Burr 
down the river. I observe, too, that Anderson's ex- 
penses were paid out of the money sent by Burr to Jack- 
son ; at least, in the account rendered to Burr by Jackson 
and Coffee at the final settlement there is an item of 
seven hundred dollars cash paid to Anderson. Anderson 
succeeded in getting seventy-five young men to enlist in 
his company. 

It was not until the loth of November, a week after 
the receipt of Burr's orders and money, that General 
Jackson, according to his own account, began to think 



AT HOME. 

47 

there might be some truth in the reports which attrib- 
uted to Burr unlawful designs-reports which he had 
previously regarded only as new evidences of the malice 
ot Butt s political enemies and his own. 

But about the date mentioned, while General Tack 
son and his partners were full of Burr's business, a 
friend of Jackson's visited the Hermitage, who succeeded 
m convincmg him that some gigantic scheme of iniquity 
was on foot in the United States-a conspiracy for the 
dismemberment of the Union-and that it was possible 
nay, almost probable, that Coloner Burr's extensive 
preparations of boats, provisions, and men had some 
connection with this nefarious plan. The President's 
proclamation, denouncing Burr, soon followed 

It fell to the lot of General Jackson, as commandin.. 
officer of militia, to take the lead in the measures de^ 
signed to procure the arrest of Burr and his confeder- 
ates. The general made great exertions to accomplish 
this object, but Burr had gone beyond pursuit. It was 
widely believed at the time that General Jackson was 
involved m the unlawful part of Burr's schemes, but 
there was not the slightest ground for such a belief and 
nothing can be more complete than the chain of testi- 
mony that establishes his innocence. A few months 
later we find him at Richmond, whither he had been 
summoned as a witness in the trial of Burr There he 
harangued the crowd in the Capitol Square, defending 
Burr, and angrily denouncing Jefferson as a persecutor 
He made himself so conspicuous as Burr's champion at 
Richmond, that Mr. Madison, the Secretary of State 
took offense at it, and remembered it to Jackson's dis- 
advantage five years later, when he was President of the 
United States, with a war on his hands. For the same 
reason, I presume, it was that Jackson was not called 
upon to give testimony upon the trial. Burr, it seems 



48 GENERAL JACKSON. 

was equally satisfied with Jackson. Blennerhasset, in 
that part of his diary which records his prison interviews 
with Burr, says : " We passed to the topics of our late 
adventures on the Mississippi, in which Burr said little, 
but declared he did not know of any reason to blame 
General Jackson, of Tennessee, for anything he had done 
or omitted. But he declares he will not lose a day after 
the favorable issue at the Capitol (his acquittal) — of 
which he has no doubt — to direct his entire attention to 
setting up his projects (which have only been suspended) 
on a better model, * in which work,' he says, ' he has 
even here made some progress.' " Jackson, on his part, 
went all lengths in defense of Burr; nor was it possible 
for him to support any man in any other way. Toward 
Wilkinson, whom he regarded as the betrayer of Burr, 
his anger burned with such fury, that if the two men had 
met in a place convenient the meeting could hardly 
have had any other result than a — "difficulty." 

About the year 1809 it chanced that twins were born 
to one of Mrs. Jackson's brothers, Savern Donelson. 
The mother, not in perfect health, was scarcely able to 
sustain both these newcomers. Mrs. Jackson, partly to 
relieve her sister and partly with the wish to provide a 
son and heir for her husband, took one of the infants, 
when it was but a few days old, home to the Hermitage. 
The general soon became extremely fond of the boy, 
gave him his own name, adopted him, and treated him 
thenceforth, to the last hour of his life, not as a son 
merely but as an only son. This boy was the late 
Andrew Jackson, inheritor of the general's estate and 
name, master of the Hermitage until it became the 
property of the State of Tennessee. A few years later 
another little nephew of Mrs. Jackson's, the well-known 
Andrew Jackson Donelson, became an inmate of the 
Hermitage, and was educated by General Jackson. 



CHAPTER VII. 

IN THE FIELD. 

At the beginning of the War of 1812 there was not a 
militia general in the Western country less likely to re- 
ceive a commission from the General Government than 
Andrew Jackson. There were unpleasant traditions and 
recollections connected with his name in Mr. Madison's 
Cabinet, as we know. 

There were those, however, who were strongly con- 
vinced that General Jackson was the very man, of all 
who Hved in the valley of the Mississippi, to be intrusted 
with its defense. Aaron Burr thought so for one. He 
had just returned to New York, after his four years' 
exile, when the war began. " I know," said Colonel 
Burr, " that my word is not worth much with Madison ; 
but you may tell him from me that there is an unknown 
man in the West, named Andrew Jackson, who will do 
credit to a commission in the army if conferred on him." 
This remarkable prediction of what was soon verified, 
and proof of Burr's knowledge of the then obscure indi- 
vidual he recommended to notice, occurred before Gen- 
eral Jackson had probably ever heard a volley of mus- 
ket balls, or performed any part to indicate his future 
military distinction. 

It was General Jackson's promptitude in tendering 
his services and the services of his division, and that 
alone, which softened the repugnance of the President 
and his Cabinet. The war was declared on the 12th of 



50 GENERAL JACKSON. 

June. Such news is not carried, but flies, and so may 
have reached Nashville by the 20th. On the 25th, Gen- 
eral Jackson offered to the President, through Governor 
Blount, his own services and those of twenty-five hun- 
dred volunteers of his division. A response to the dec- 
laration of war so timely and practical could not but 
have been extremely gratifying to an administration 
(never too confident in itself) that was then entering 
upon a contest to which a powerful minority was op- 
posed, and with a presidential election only four months 
distant. The reply of the Secretary of War, dated July 
nth, was as cordial as a communication of the kind 
could be. The President, he said, had received the ten- 
der of service by General Jackson and the volunteers 
under his command " with peculiar satisfaction." " In 
accepting their services," added the Secretary, "the 
President can not withhold an expression of his admira- 
tion of the zeal and ardor by which they are animated." 
Governor Blount was evidently more than satisfied with 
the result of the offer; he publicly thanked General 
Jackson and the volunteers for the honor they had done 
the State of Tennessee by making it. 

Thus we find General Jackson's services accepted by 
the President before hostilities could have seriously be- 
gun. The summer passed, however, and the autumn 
came, and still he was at home upon his farm. 

After Hull's failure in Canada, fears were entertained 
that the British would direct their released forces against 
the ports of the Gulf of Mexico, particularly New Or- 
leans, where General James Wilkinson still commanded. 
On October 21st the Governor of Tennessee was re- 
quested to dispatch fifteen hundred of the Tennessee 
troops to the re-enforcement of General Wilkinson. 
On November ist Governor Blount issued the requisite 
orders to General Jackson, who entered at once upon 



IN THE FIELD. 5 1 

the task of preparing for the descent of the river with 
his volunteers. 

The loth of December was the day appointed for 
the troops to rendezvous at Nashville. The climate of 
Tennessee, generally so pleasant, is liable to brief periods 
of severe cold. Twic-e within the memory of living per- 
sons the Cumberland has been frozen over at Nashville, 
and as often snow has fallen there to the depth of a 
foot. It so chanced that the day named for the assem- 
bling of the troops was the coldest that had been known 
at Nashville for many years, and there was deep snow 
on the ground. Such was the enthusiasm, however, of 
the volunteers, that more than two thousand presented 
themselves on the appointed day. The general was no 
less puzzled than pleased by this alacrity. Nashville 
was still little more than a large village, not capable of 
affording the merest shelter to such a concourse of sol- 
diers — who, in any weather not extraordinary, would 
have disdained a roof. There was no resource for the 
mass of the troops but to camp out. Fortunately, the 
quartermaster, Major William B. Lewis, had provided a 
thousand cords of wood for the use of the men — a quan- 
tity that was supposed to be sufficient to last till they 
embarked. Every stick of the wood was burned the 
first night in keeping the men from freezing. From 
dark until nearly daylight the general and the quarter- 
master were out among the troops, employed in provid- 
ing for this unexpected and perilous exigency — seeing 
that drunken men were brought within reach of the fire, 
and that no drowsy sentinel slept the sleep of death. 

The extreme cold soon passed aw^ay, however, and 
the organization of the troops proceeded. In a few days 
the little army was in readiness : one regiment of cav- 
alry, commanded by Colonel John Coffee, six hundred 
and seventy in number ; two regiments of infantry, four- 



52 GENERAL JACKSON. 

teen hundred men in all, one regiment commanded by 
Colonel William Hall, the other by Colonel Thomas H. 
Benton. Major William B. Lewis, the general's neighbor 
and friend, was the quartermaster. William Carroll, a 
young man from Pennsylvania, a new favorite of the 
general's, was the brigade inspector. The general's aide 
and secretary was John Reid, long his companion in the 
field, afterward his biographer. The troops were of the 
very best material the State afforded — planters, business 
men, their sons and grandsons — a large proportion of 
them descended from Revolutionary soldiers who had 
settled in great numbers in the beautiful valley of the 
Cumberland. John Coffee was a host in himself — a 
plain, brave, modest, stalwart man, devoted to his chief, 
to Tennessee, and to the Union. He had been recently 
married to Polly Donelson, the daughter of Captain 
John Donelson, who had given them the farm on which 
they lived. 

On the 7th of January all was ready. The infantry 
embarked, and the flotilla dropped down the river. Colo- 
nel Coffee and the mounted men marched across the 
country, and were to rejoin the general at Natchez. " I 
have the pleasure to inform you," wrote Jackson to the 
Secretary of War just before leaving home, " that I am 
now at the head of 2,070 volunteers, the choicest of our 
citizens, who go at the call of their country to execute 
the will of the Government, who have no constitutional 
scruples, and, if the Government orders, will rejoice at 
the opportunity of placing the American eagle on the 
ramparts of Mobile, Pensacola, and Fort St. Augustine, 
effectually banishing from the Southern coasts all British 
influence." 

Down the Cumberland to the Ohio ; down the Ohio 
to the Mississippi ; down the Mississippi toward New 
Orleans ; stopping here and there for supplies ; delayed 



IN THE FIELD. 53 

for days at a time by the ice in the swift Ohio ; ground- 
ing a boat now and then ; losing one altogether — the 
fleet pursued its course, crunching through the floating 
masses, but making fair progress, for the space of thirty- 
nine days. 

The weather was often very cold and tempestuous, 
and the frail boats afforded only an imperfect shelter ; 
but all the little army, from the general to the privates, 
were in the highest spirits, and burned with the desire 
to do their part in restoring the diminished prestige of 
the American arms ; to atone for the shocking failures 
of the North by making new conquests at the South. 
On the 15th of February, at dawn of day, they had left 
a thousand miles of winding stream behind them, and 
saw before them the little town of Natchez. The fleet 
came to. The men were rejoiced to hear that Colonel 
Coffee and his mounted regiment had already arrived in 
the vicinity. 

Here General Jackson received a dispatch from Gen- 
eral Wilkinson requesting him to halt at Natchez, as 
neither quarters nor provisions were ready for them at 
New Orleans, nor had an enemy yet made his appear- 
ance in the Southern waters. Wilkinson added, that he 
had received no orders respecting the Tennesseeans, 
knew not their destination, and should not think of 
yielding his command " until regularly reUeved by su- 
perior authority." Jackson assented to the policy of re- 
maining at Natchez for further instructions; but with 
regard to General Wilkinson's uneasiness on the ques- 
tion of rank he said, in his reply, " I have marched with 
the true spirit of a soldier, to serve my country at any 
and every point where service can be rendered," and 
" the detachment under my command shall be kept in 
complete readiness to move to any point at which an 
enemy may appear, at the shortest notice." So, at 
5 



54 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Natchez, the troops disembarked, and, encamping in a 
pleasant and salubrious place a few miles from the 
town, passed their days in learning the duties of the 
soldier. 

The month of February passed away and still the 
army was in camp, employed in nothing more serious 
than the daily drill. No one knew when they were to 
move, where they were to go, nor what they were to do. 
The commanding general was not a little impatient, and 
even the more placid Colonel Coffee longed to be in 
action. 

At length, on a Sunday morning toward the end of 
March, an express from Washington reached the camp, 
and a letter from the War Department was placed in the 
general's hands. We can imagine the intensity of feel- 
ing with which he tore it open and gathered its purport, 
and the fever of excitement which the news of its arrival 
kindled throughout the camp. The communication was 
signed "J. Armstrong." Eustis, then, was out of office. 
Yes, he left the department February 4th, and this let- 
ter was written by the new Secretary two days after. 
But its contents ? Was it the perusal of this astounding 
letter that caused the general's hair to stand on end, and 
remain forever after erect and bristling, unVike the quills 
upon the fretful porcupine ? Fancy, if you can, the de- 
meanor, attitude, countenance, of this fiery and gener- 
ous soldier, as he read and re-read, with ever-growing 
wonder and wrath, the following epistle : 

" Sir : The causes of embodying and marching to 
New Orleans the corps under your command having 
ceased to exist, you will, on the receipt of this letter, 
consider it as dismissed from public service, and take 
measures to have delivered over to Major-General Wil- 
kinson all the articles of public property which may 



IN THE FIELD. 



55 



have been put into its possession. You will accept for 
yourself and the corps the thanks of the President of 
the United States." 

Dismissed without pay, without means of transport, 
without provision for the sick ? How could he dismiss 
men so far from home, to whom, on receiving them 
from their parents, he had promised to be a father, and 
either to restore them in honor to their arms, or give 
them a soldier's burial ? 

His resolution was taken on the instant never to dis- 
band his troops till he had led them back to the borders 
of their own State ! The very day on which the order 
arrived the general issued the requisite directions for 
the preparation of wagons, provisions, and ammunition. 
On the next day he dispatched letters, indignant and 
explanatory, to the Secretary of War, to Governor 
Blount, to the President, and to General Wilkinson. He 
attributed the strange conduct of the Government to 
every cause but the right one — its own inexperience, and 
the difficulty of directing operations at places so remote 
from the seat of Government. 

At the last moment came the orders of the Govern- 
ment (which ought to have accompanied the order to 
disband) directing the force under General Jackson to 
be paid off, and allowed pay and rations for the'journey 
home. It was too late. The general was resolved, 
whatever might betide, to conduct the men back to their 
homes, in person, as an organized body. " I shall com- 
mence the line of march," he wrote to Wilkinson, *' on 
Thursday, the 25th. Should the contractor not feel 
himself justified in sending on provisions for my in- 
fantry, or the quartermaster wagons for the transporta- 
tion of my sick, I shall dismount the cavalry, carry them 
on, and provide the means for their support out of my 



56 GENERAL JACKSON. 

private funds. If that should fail, I thank my God we 
have plenty of horses to feed my troops to the Tennes- 
see, where I know my country will meet me with ample 
supplies. These brave men, at the call of their country, 
voluntarily rallied round its insulted standard. They 
followed me to the field. I shall carefully march them 
back to their homes. It is for the agents of the Govern- 
ment to account to the State of Tennessee and the whole 
world for their singular and unusual conduct to this de- 
tachment." 

This resolve of his to disobey his Government for 
their sakes, and the manner in which he executed that re- 
solve, raised his popularity to the highest point. When 
the little army set out from Natchez for a march of five 
hundred miles through the wilderness, there were a hun- 
dred and fifty men on the sick list, of whom fifty-six 
could not raise their heads from the pillow. There were 
but eleven wagons for the conveyance of these. The 
rest of the sick were mounted on the horses of the offi- 
cers. The general had three excellent horses, and gave 
them all up to the sick men, himself trudging along on 
foot with the brisk pace that was usual with him. Day 
after day he tramped gayly along the miry forest roads, 
never tired, and always ready with a cheery word for 
the others. They marched with extraordinary speed, 
averaging eighteen miles a day, and performing the 
whole journey in less than a month ; and yet the sick 
men rapidly recovered under the reviving influences of 
a homeward march. "Where am I ?" asked one young 
fellow who had been lifted to his place in a wagon when 
insensible and apparently dying. " On your way home ! " 
cried the general, merrily ; and the young soldier began 
to improve from that hour, and reached home in good 
health. 

On approaching the borders of the State the general 



IN THE FIELD. 



57 



again offered his services to the Government to aid in, 
or conduct, a new invasion of Canada. His force, he 
said, could be increased if necessary, and he had a few 
standards wearing the American eagle that he should be 
happy to place upon the enemy's ramparts. But the de- 
sired response came not; and so, on the 22dof May, the 
last of his army was drawn up on the public square of 
Nashville waiting only for the word of command to dis- 
perse to their homes. 

The troops were dismissed, exulting in their com- 
mander, and spreading wide the fame of his gallant and 
graceful conduct. " Long will their general live in the 
memory of the volunteers of West Tennessee," said the 
Nashville Whig, a day or two after the troops were dis- 
banded, " for his benevolent, humane, and fatherly treat- 
ment of his soldiers. If gratitude and love can reward 
him, General Jackson has them. It affords us pleasure 
to say that we believe there is not a man belonging to 
the detachment but what loves him. His fellow-citizens 
at home are not less pleased with his conduct. We 
fondly hope his merited worth will not be overlooked 
by the Government." 

These events were not regarded at Washington in 
the light they were at Nashville. The " Government " 
came very near making up its mind to let the general 
bear the responsibilities which he had incurred. Colonel 
Benton says : " We all returned ; were discharged ; dis- 
persed among our homes, and the fine chance on which 
we had so much counted was all gone. And now came 
a blow upon Jackson himself — the fruit of the moneyed 
responsibility which he had assumed. His transporta- 
tion drafts were all protested — returned upon him for 
payment, which was impossible, and directions to bring 
suit. This was the month of May. I was coming on to 
Washington on my own account, and cordially took 



5 8 GENERAL JACKSON. 

charge of Jackson's case. Suits were delayed until the 
result of his application of relief could be heard. I ar- 
rived at this city. Congress was in session — the extra 
session of the spring and summer of 1813. I applied to 
the members of Congress from Tennessee ; they could 
do nothing. I applied to the Secretary of War ; he did 
nothing. 

" Weeks had passed away, and the time for delay was 
expiring at Nashville. Ruin seemed to be hovering over 
the head of Jackson, and I felt the necessity of some 
decisive movement. I was young then, and had some 
material in me — perhaps some boldness, and the occa- 
sion brought it out. I resolved to take a step, charac- 
terized in the letter which I wrote to the general as ^ an 
appeal from the justice to the fears of the Administration* 
I remember the words, though I have never seen the let- 
ter since. I drew up a memoir, addressed to the Secretary 
of War, representing to him that these volunteers were 
drawn from the bosoms of almost every substantial family 
in Tennessee ; that the whole State stood by Jackson in 
bringing them home ; and that the State would be lost 
to the Administration if he was left to suffer. It was 
upon this last argument that I relied — all those founded 
on justice having failed. 

"It was on a Saturday morning, June 12th, that I 
carried this memoir to the War Office and delivered it. 
Monday morning I came back early to learn the result 
of my argument. The Secretary was not yet in. I spoke 
to the chief clerk (who was afterward Adjutant-General 
Parker), and inquired if the Secretary had left any an- 
swer for me before he left the office on Saturday. He 
said No, but that he had put the memoir in his side- 
pocket — the breast-pocket — and carried it home with 
him, saying he would take it for his Sunday's considera- 
tion. That encouraged me — gave a gleam of hope and 



IN THE FIELD. 



59 



a feeling of satisfaction. I thought it a good subject 
for his Sunday's meditation. Presently he arrived. I 
stepped in before anybody to his office. 

" He told me quickly and kindly that there was 
much reason in what I ha^d said, but that there was no 
way for him to do it ;. that Congress would have to give 
the relief. I answered him that I thought there was a 
way for him to do it : it was, to give an order to Gen- 
eral Wilkinson, Quartermaster-General in the Southern 
Department,, to pay for so much transportation as Gen- 
eral Jackson's command would have been entitled to if 
it had returned under regular orders. Upon the instant 
he took up a pen, wrote down the very wprds I had 
spoken, directed a clerk to put them into forni, and the 
work was done. The order went off immediately, and 
Jackson was relieved from imminent ipapending ruin 
and Tennessee remained firm to the Administration." 

Meanwhile^ General Jackson was drawn, much against 
his will, into a "difficulty " with Jesse Benton, a broth- 
er of Colonel Thomas H, Benton, who had just ren- 
dered him so important a service. He had even served 
as second in a duel between Colonel Carroll and Jesse 
Benton, in which Benton had been wounded. It hap- 
pened, too, that Colonel Benton heard this strange news 
at the most unfortunate moment. He had completed 
his business at Washington, had sent on to Tennessee 
the news of his great success, and was about to return 
home, when he heard of this duel, and heard, too, that 
General Jackson had gone to the field not as his 
brother's friend but as the second of his brother's an- 
tagonist ! Soon came wild letters from Jesse, so narrat- 
ing the affair as to place the conduct of General Jackson 
in the worst possible light. Officious friends of the Ben- 
tons, foes to Jackson and to Carroll, wrote to Colonel 
Benton in a similar strain, adding fuel to the fire of his 



6o GENERAL JACKSON. 

indignation. Benton wrote to Jackson denouncing his 
conduct in offensive terms. Jackson replied, in effect, 
that before addressing him in that manner Colonel Ben- 
ton should have inquired of him what his conduct really- 
had been — not listened to the tales of designing and in- 
terested parties. Benton wrote still more angrily. He 
said that General Jackson had conducted the duel in a 
'•'■ savage, unequal, unfair, and base manner." On his 
way home through Tennessee, especially at Knoxville, 
he inveighed bitterly and loudly, in public places, against 
General Jackson, using language such as angry men did 
use in the Western country fifty years ago. 

Jackson had liked Thomas Benton, and remembered 
with gratitude his parents, particularly his mother, who 
had been gracious and good to him when he was a " raw 
lad" in North Carolina. Jackson was therefore sin- 
cerely unwilling to break with him, and manifested a 
degree of forbearance which it is a pity he could not 
have maintained to the end. He took fire at last, threw 
old friendship to the winds, and swore by the Eternal 
that he would horsewhip Tom Benton the first time he 
met him. 

On reaching Nashville Colonel Benton and his 
brother Jesse did not go to their accustomed inn, but 
stopped at the City Hotel, to avoid General Jackson, 
unless he chose to go out of his way to seek them. 
This was on the 3d of September. In the evening of the 
same day it came to pass that General Jackson and 
Colonel Coffee rode into town, and put up their horses 
as usual, at the Nashville Inn. 

The next morning, about nine. Colonel Coffee pro- 
posed to General Jackson that they should stroll over 
to the post-office. They started. The general carried 
with him, as he ordinarily did, his riding-whip. He also 
wore a smallsword, as all gentlemen once did, and as 



IN THE FIELD. 6l 

official persons were accustomed to do in Tennessee as 
late as the War of 1812. As they drew near they ob- 
served that Jesse Benton was standing before the hotel 
near his brother. On coming up to where Colonel Ben- 
ton stood, General Jackson turned suddenly toward him, 
with his whip in his right hand, and, stepping up to him, 
said: 

"Now, you d d rascal, I'm going to punish you. 

Defend yourself! " 

Benton put his hand into his breast-pocket and 
seemed to be fumbling for Jiis pistol. As quick as light- 
ning Jackson drew a pistol from a pocket behind him, 
and presented it full at his antagonist, who recoiled a 
pace or two. Jackson advanced upon him. Benton 
continued to step slowly backward, Jackson close upon 
him, with a pistol at his heart, until they had reached 
the back door of the hotel and were in the act of turning 
down the back piazza. At that moment, just as Jackson 
was beginning to turn, Jesse Benton entered the passage 
behind the belligerents, and, seeing his brother's danger, 
raised his pistol and fired at Jackson. The pistol was 
loaded with two balls and a large slug. The slug took 
effect in Jackson's left shoulder, shattering it horribly. 
One of the balls struck the thick part of his left arm 
and buried itself near the bone. The other ball splin- 
tered the board partition at his side. The shock of the 
wounds was such that Jackson fell across the entry and 
remained prostrate, bleeding profusely. 

Coffee had remained just outside, meanwhile. Hear- 
ing the report of the pistol, he sprang into the entry, 
and, seeing his chief prostrate at the feet of Colonel 
Benton, concluded that it was his ball that had laid him 
low. He rushed upon Benton, drew his pistol, fired, and 
missed. Then he " clubbed " his pistol, and was about 
to strike, when Colonel Benton, in stepping backward, 



62 GENERAL JACKSON. 

came to some stairs of which he was not aware and fell 
headlong to the bottom. Coffee, thinking him hors de 
combat^ hastened to the assistance of his wounded gen- 
eral. 

Faint from the loss of blood, Jackson was conveyed 
to a room in the Nashville Inn, his wound still bleeding 
fearfully. Before the bleeding could be stopped, two 
mattresses, as Mrs. Jackson used to say, were soaked 
through, and the general was reduced almost to the last 
gasp. All the doctors in Nashville were soon in at- 
tendance, all but one of whom, and he a young man, 
recommended the amputation of the shattered arm, 
" I'll keep my arm," said the wounded man, and he kept 
it. No attempt was made to extract the ball, and it 
remained in the arm for twenty years. The ghastly 
wounds in the shoulder were dressed, in the simple 
manner of the Indians and pioneers, with poultices of 
slippery elm and other products of the woods. The 
patient was utterly prostrated with the loss of blood. 
It was two or three weeks before he could leave his bed. 

After the retirement of the general's friends the 
Bentons remained for an hour or more upon the scene 
of the affray, denouncing Jackson as an assassin, and a 
defeated assassin. They defied him to come forth and 
renew the strife. Colonel Benton made a parade of 
breaking Jackson's smallsword, which had been dropped 
in the struggle and left on the floor of the hotel. He 
broke it in the public square, and accompanied the act 
with words defiant and contemptuous, uttered in the 
loudest tones of his thundering voice. The general's 
friends, all anxiously engaged around the couch of their 
bleeding chief, disregarded these demonstrations at the 
time, and the brothers retired, victorious and exulting. 

Shortly after the affray Colonel Benton went to his 
home in Franklin, Tennessee, beyond the reach of 



IN THE FIELD. 



63 



"Jackson's puppies." He was appointed lieutenant- 
colonel in the regular army, left Tennessee, resigned his 
commission at the close of the war, emigrated to Mis- 
souri, and never again met General Jackson till 1823, 
when both were members of the Senate of the United 
States. Jesse Benton, I may add, never forgave General 
Jackson, nor could he ever excuse his brother for for- 
giving the general. Publications against Jackson by 
the angry Jesse, dated as late as 1828, may be seen in 
old collections of political trash. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 

August 30, 1813, was the date of this mo5t terrible 
event. The place was a fort, or stockade-of-refuge, on 
the shores of Lake Tensaw, in the southern part of what 
is now the State of Alabama, 

One Samuel Mims, an old and wealthy inhabitant of 
the Indian country, had inclosed with upright logs an 
acre of land, in the middle of which stood his house, a 
spacious one-story building, with sheds adjoining. The 
inclosure, pierced with five hundred portholes three 
and a half feet from the ground, was entered by two 
heavy, rude gates, one on the eastern, and one on the 
western side. In a corner, on a slight elevation, a 
blockhouse was begun but never finished. When the 
country became thoroughly alarmed by the hostility of 
the Indians, the inhabitants along the Alabama River, 
few in number and without means of defense, had left 
their crops standing in the fields and their houses open 
to the plunderer, and had rushed to the blockhouses 
and stockades, of which there were twenty in a line of 
seventy miles. The neighbors of Mr. Mims resorted to 
his inclosure, each family hastening to construct within 
it a rough cabin for its own accommodation. 

As soon as the fort — for fort it was called — was suffi- 
ciently prepared for their reception, Governor Claiborne, 
of New Orleans, dispatched one hundred and seventy- 
five volunteers to assist ki its defense, under the com- 



stjn 



THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 



65 



mand of Major Daniel Beasley. Already, from the neigh- 
borhood, seventy militiamen had assembled at the fort, 
besides a mob of friendly Indians and one hundred and 
six negro slaves. Upon taking the command, Major 
Beasley, to accommodate the multitude which thronged 
to the fort, had enlarged it by making a new line of 
picketing sixty feet beyond the eastern end, but left 
the old line of stockades standing, thus forming two in- 
closures. 

On the morning of the fatal day, though Major 
Beasley had spared some of his armed men for the de- 
fense of neighboring stations, Fort Mims contained five 
hundred and fifty-three souls — a mass of human beings 
crowded together in a flat, swampy region, under the 
broiling sun of an Alabama August. Of these, more 
than one hundred were white women and children. 

Many days had passed — long, hot, tedious days — 
and no Indians were seen. The first terror abated. 
The higher officers, it seems, had scarcely believed at 
all in the hostile intentions of the Creeks, and were 
inclined to make light of the general consternation. At 
least, they were entirely confident in their ability to 
defend the fort against any force that the Indians could 
bring against it. The motley inmates gave themselves 
up to fun and frolic. A rumor would occasionally come 
in with alarming news of Indian movements, and for a 
few hours the old caution was resumed, and the men 
would languidly work on the defenses. But still the 
hourly scouts sent out by the commander could discover 
no traces of an enemy, and the hot days and nights still 
wore away without alarm. 

On August 29th, two slaves, who had been sent out to 
watch some cattle that grazed a few miles from the fort, 
came rushing breathless throiigh the gate, reporting that 



pSnt 



they had seen twenty-four plmted warriors. A general 



66 GENERAL JACKSON. 

alarm ensued, and the garrison flew to their stations. A 
party of horse, guided by the negroes, galloped to the 
spot, but could neither find Indians nor discover any of 
the usual traces of their presence. Upon their return 
one of the negroes was tied up and severely flogged for 
alarming the garrison by what Major Beasley supposed 
to be a sheer fabrication. The other negro would also 
have been punished but for the interference of his mas- 
ter, who believed his tale; at which interference the 
major was so much displeased that he ordered the gen- 
tleman, with his large family, to leave the fort on the 
following morning. Never did such a fatal infatuation 
possess the mind of a man intrusted with so many hu- 
man lives. 

The 30th of August arrived. At ten in the morning 
the commandant was sitting in his room writing to 
Governor Claiborne a letter (which still exists) to the 
effect that he need not concern himself in the least re- 
specting the safety of Fort Mims, as there was no doubt 
of its impregnability against any Indian force whatever. 
Both gates were wide open. Women were preparing 
dinner. Children were playing about the cabins. Sol- 
diers were sauntering, sleeping, playing cards. The 
owner of the frightened negro had now consented to his 
punishment rather than leave the fort, and the poor fel- 
low was tied up expecting soon to feel the lash. His 
companion, who had been whipped the day before, was 
tending cattle at the same place where again he saw, 
or thought he saw, painted warriors ; and, fearing to be 
whipped again if he reported the news, he fled to the 
next station some miles distant. 

All this calm and quiet morning, from before day- 
light until noon, there lay, in a ravine only four hundred 
yards from the fort's eastern gate, one thousand Creek 
warriors, armed to the teetiS, and hideous with war-paint 



THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 67 

and feathers. Weathersford, the crafty and able chief- 
tain, had led them from Pensacola, where the British 
had supplied them with weapons and ammunition, to 
this well-chosen spot, where they crouched and waited 
through the long slow morning, with the devilish pa- 
tience with which savages and tigers can wait for their 
prey. So dead was the silence in the ravine that the 
birds fluttered and sang as usual in the branches above 
the dusky, breathing mass. Five prophets with black- 
ened faces, with medicine-bags and magic rods, lay 
among them, ready at the signal to begin their incanta- 
tions and stimulate the fury of the warriors. 

At noon a drum in the fort beat to dinner. Officers 
and men, their arms laid aside, all unsuspicious of dan- 
ger, were gathering to the meal in various parts of the 
stockade. That dinner-drum was the signal which 
Weathersford had cunningly chosen for the attack. At 
the first tap the silent ravine was alive with Indians, 
who leaped up and ran in a tumultuous mass toward 
the eastern gate of the devoted fort. The head of the 
throng had reached a field one hundred and fifty yards 
across that lay before the gate, had raised a hideous 
whoop, and were streaming across the field, before a 
sentinel saw or heard them. Then arose the terrible cry, 
''Indians! Indians!** and there was a rush of women 
and children to the houses, and of men to the gates and 
portholes. Major Beasley was one of the first at the 
gate, and made a frantic attempt to close it ; but sand 
had washed into the gateway, and ere the obstruction 
could be removed the savages poured in, felled the com- 
mander to the earth with clubs and tomahawks, and 
ran over his bleeding body into the fort. He crawled 
behind the gate, and in a few minutes died, exhorting 
his men with his last breath to make a resolute resist- 
ance. At once the whole of that part of the fort which 



68 GENERAL JACKSON. 

had been lately added, and which was separated from 
the main inclosure by the old line of pickets, was filled 
with Indians, hooting, howling, dancing among the dead 
bodies of many of the best officers and men of the little 
garrison. The poor negro, tied up to be whipped for 
doing all he could to prevent this catastrophe, was 
killed as he stood waiting for his punishment. 

The situation was at once simple and horrible. Two 
inclosures adjoining, with a line of portholes through 
the log partition — one inclosure full of men, women, 
children, friendly Indians and negroes, the other filled 
with howling savages, mad with the lust of slaughter; 
both compartments containing sheds, cabins, and other 
places for refuge and assault ; the large open field with- 
out the eastern gate covered with what seemed a count- 
less swarm of naked fiends hurrying to the fort; all 
avenues of escape closed by Weathersford's foresight 
and vigilance ; no white station within three miles, and 
no adequate help within a day's march ; the comman- 
dant and some of his ablest officers trampled under the 
feet of the savage foe — such was the posture of affairs at 
Fort Mims a few minutes after noon on this dreadful day. 

The garrison, partly recovering their first panic, 
formed along the line of portholes and fired some 
effective volleys, killing with the first discharge the 
five prophets who were dancing, grimacing, and howl- 
ing among the assailants in the smaller inclosure. 
These men had given out that they were invulnerable. 
American bullets were to split upon their sacred per- 
sons and pass off harmless. Their fall so abated the 
ardor of the savages that their fire slackened, and some 
began to retreat from the fort. But new crowds kept 
coming up, and the attack was soon renewed in all its 
first fury. 

The garrison, with scarcely an exception, behaved as 



THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 



69 



men should do in circumstances so terrible and desper- 
ate. One Captain Bailey took the command after the 
death of Major Beasley, and infused the fire of his own 
indomitable spirit into the hearts of the whole com- 
pany, adding an example of cool valor to encouraging 
words. The garrison maintained a ceaseless and de- 
structive fire through the portholes and from the 
houses. It happened more than once that, at a si- 
multaneous discharge through a porthole, both the 
Indian without and the white man within were killed. 
Even the boys and some of the women assisted in the 
defense; and few of the women gave themselves up to 
terror while there remained any hope of preserving the 
fort. Some of the old men broke holes in the roof of 
the large house and did good execution upon the sav- 
ages outside of the stockade. The noise was terrific. 
All the Indians who could not get at the portholes to 
fight seemed to have passed the hours of this horrible 
day in dancing round the fort, screaming, hooting, and 
taunting the inmates with their coming fate. 

Amid scenes like these three hours passed, and still 
the larger part of the fort remained in the hands of the 
garrison, though many a gallant soldier had fallen, and 
the rooms of the large house were filled with wounded 
men and ministering women. The heroic Bailey still 
spoke cheerily. He said that Indians never fought long 
when they were bravely met ; they would certainly 
abandon the assault if the garrison continued to resist. 
He tried to induce a small party to make a sortie, fight 
their way to the next station, and bring a force to attack 
the enemy in the rear. Failing in this, he said he would 
go himself, and began to climb the picketing, but was 
pulled back by his friends, who saw the madness of the 
attempt. About three o'clock the Indians seemed to 

tire of the long contest. The fire slackened, the howl- 
6 



«Q GENERAL JACKSON. 

ings subsided, the savages began to carry off the plun- 
der from the cabins in the lesser inclosure, and hope 
revived in many a despairing heart. But Weathersford 
at this hour rode up on a large black horse, and, meet- 
ing a throng of the retreating plunderers, upbraided 
them in an animated speech, and induced them to return 
with him to the fort and complete its destruction. 

And now fire was added to the horrors of the scene! 
By burning arrows and other expedients the house of 
Mr. Mims was set on fire, and soon the whole structure, 
with its extensive outbuildings and sheds, was wrapped 
in flames; while the shrieks of the women and children 
were heard, for the first time, above the dreadful din 
and whoop of the battle. One after another the smaller 
buildings caught, until the whole inclosure was a roar- 
ing sea of flame, except one poor corner, where some 
extra picketing formed a last refuge to the surviving 
victims. Into this inclosure hurried a crowd of women, 
children, negroes, old men, wounded soldiers, trampling 
one another to death — all in the last agonies of mortal 
terror. The savages were soon upon them, and the 
work of slaughter — fie/ce, unrelenting slaughter — began. 
Children were seized by the feet and their brains dashed 
out against the pickets. Women were cut to pieces. 
Men were tomahawked and scalped. Some poor Span- 
iards, deserters from Pensacola, were kneeling along the 
pickets, and were tomahawked one after another as 
they knelt. Weathersford, who was not a savage, but 
a misguided hero and patriot, worthy of Tecumseh's 
friendship, did what Tecumseh would have done if he 
had been there: he tried to stop this horrid carnage. 
But the Indians were delirious and frantic with the love 
of blood, and would not stay their murderous hands while 
one of that mass of human victims continued to live. 

At noon that day, as we have seen, five hundred and 



THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 



n 



fifty-three persons were inmates of Fort Mims. At sun- 
set, four hundred mangled, scalped and bloody corpses 
were heaped and strewed within its wooden walls. Not 
one white woman, not one white child, escaped. Twelve 
of the garrison, at the last moment, by cutting through 
two of the pickets, got out of the fort and fled to the 
swamp. A large number of the negroes were spared by 
the Indians and kept for slaves. A few half-breeds 
were made prisoners. Captain Bailey, severely wounded, 
ran to the swamp, and died by the side of a cypress 
stump. A negro woman, with a ball in her breast, 
reached a canoe on Lake Tensaw and paddled fifteen 
miles to Fort Stoddart, and bore the first news of the 
massacre to Governor Claiborne. Most of the men who 
fled from the slaughter wandered for days in the swamps 
and forests, and only reached places of safety, nearly 
starved, after many a hair-breadth escape from the In- 
dians. Some of them were living forty years ago, from 
whose lips Mr. A. J. Pickett, the historian of Alabama, 
gathered most of the particulars which have been briefly 
related here. 

The garrison sold their lives as dearly as they could. 
It is thought that four hundred of Weathersford's band 
were killed and wounded. That night the savages, ex- 
hausted with their bloody work, appear to have slept 
near the scene of the massacre. Next day they returned 
to bury their dead, but, fatigued with the number, gave 
it up and left many exposed. Ten days after. Major 
Kennedy reached the spot with a detachment of troops 
to bury the bodies of the whites, and found the air dark 
with buzzards, and hundreds of dogs gnawing the bodies. 
In two large pits the troops, shuddering now with horror 
and now fierce for revenge, succeeded at length in bury- 
ing the remains of their countrymen and countrywomen. 
Major Kennedy said in his report : " Indians, negroes. 



72 GENERAL JACKSON. 

white men, women, and children, lay in one promiscuous 
ruin. All were scalped, and the females of every age 
were butchered in a manner which neither decency nor 
language will permit me to describe. The main build- 
ing was burned to ashes, which were filled with bones. 
The plains and woods around were covered with dead 
bodies. All the houses were consumed by fire except 
the blockhouse and a part of the pickets. The soldiers 
and officers with one voice called on Divine Providence 
to revenge the death of our murdered friends." 

Such was the massacre at Fort Mims. The news 
flew upon the wings of the wind. From Mobile to the 
borders of Tennessee, from the vicinity of New Orleans 
almost to the coast of Georgia, there was felt to be no 
safety for the white man except in fortified posts ; nor 
certain safety even in them. In the country of the Ala- 
bama River and its branches, every white man, woman, 
and child, every friendly half-breed and Indian, hurried 
to the stockades or fled in wild terror, toward Mobile. 
" Never in my life," wrote an eyewitness, " did I see a 
country given up before without a struggle. Here are 
the finest crops my eyes ever beheld made and almost 
fit to be housed, with immense herds of cattle, negroes, 
and property, abandoned by their owners almost on the 
first alarm." Within the stockades diseases raged, and 
hundreds of families, unable to get within those inclos- 
ures, lay around the walls, squalid, panic-stricken, sick, 
and miserable. Parties of Indians roved about the 
country rioting in plunder. After burning the houses 
and laying waste the plantations, they would drive the 
cattle together in herds, and either destroy them in a 
mass or drive them off for their future use. The horses 
were taken to facilitate their marauding, and their camps 
were filled with the luxuries of the planters' houses. 
Governor Claiborne, a generous and feeling man, was 



THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 



n 



at hi§ wits' end. From every quarter came the most 
urgent and pathetic demands for troops. Not a man 
could be spared, for no one knew where next the exult- 
ant savages would endeavor to repeat the catastrophe 
of Fort Mims; and in the best-defended forts there 
were five non-combatants to one soldier. For some 
weeks of the autumn of 1813 it really seemed as if the 
white settlers of Alabama, including those of Mobile 
itself, were on the point of being exterminated. 

The news of the massacre at Fort Mims was thirty- 
one days in reaching New York. It is a proof how oc- 
cupied were the minds of the people in the Northern 
States with great events, that the dread narrative ap- 
peared in the New York papers only as an item of war 
news of comparatively small importance. The last pro- 
digious acts in the drama of Napoleon's decline and fall 
were watched with absorbing interest. The news of 
Perry's victory on Lake Erie had just thrilled the nation 
with delight and pride, and all minds were still eager 
for every new particular. Harrison's victory on the 
Thames over Proctor and Tecumseh soon followed. The 
lamentable condition of the Southern country was there- 
fore little felt at the time beyond the States immediately 
concerned. Perry and Harrison were the heroes of the 
hour. Their return from the scene of their exploits was 
a continuous triumphal /^/^. 

In a room at Nashville, a thousand miles from these 
splendid scenes, lay a gaunt, yellow-visaged man, sick, 
defeated, prostrate, with his arm bound up and his 
shoulders bandaged, waiting impatiently for his wounds 
to heal and his strength to return. Who then thought 
of him in connection with victory and glory ? Who sup- 
posed that he, of all men, was the one destined to cast 
into the shade those favorites of the nation, and shine 
out as the prime hero of the war ? 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 

There must have been swift express riding in those 
early days of September, and as stealthy as swift through 
the Indian country ; for, on the i8th of the month, nine- 
teen days after the massacre, we find the people of 
Nashville assembled in town meeting to deliberate upon 
the event, the Rev. Mr. Craighead in the chair. 

The news of the massacre produced everywhere in 
Tennessee the most profound impression. Pity for the 
distressed Alabamans, fears for the safety of their own 
borders, rage against the Creeks, so long the recipients 
of governmental bounty, united to inflame the minds of 
the people. But one feeling pervaded the State. With 
one voice it was decreed that the entire resources and 
the whole available force of Tennessee should be hurled 
upon the savage foe, to avenge the massacre and deliver 
the Southern country. 

A striking narrative of the proceedings of the Legis- 
lature on this occasion, and of the nerve, vigor, and 
resolution of the prostrate Jackson, lies before me, from 
the pen of Mr. Enoch Parsons, then a member of the 
Senate of Tennessee. " I arrived at Nashville,*' says 
this gentleman, " on the Saturday before the third Mon- 
day in September, 1813. I found in the public square a 
very large crowd of people, and many fine speeches were 
making to the people, and the talking part of a war was 
never better performed. I was invited out to the place 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 



75 



where the orators were holding forth, and invited to 
address the people. I declined the distinction. The talk- 
ing ended, and resolutions were adopted, the substance 
of which was that the enlightened Legislature would con- 
vene on the next Monday, and they would prepare for 
the emergency. 

"The Legislature was composed of twenty Senators 
and forty Representatives, some of them old, infirm men. 
As soon as the Houses were organized, at my table I 
wrote a bill, and introduced it, to call out three thousand 
five hundred men, under the general entitled to com- 
mand, and place them in the Indian nation, so that they 
might preserve the Mississippi Territory from destruc- 
tion and prevent the friendly Indians from taking the 
enemy's side, and to render service to the United States 
until the United States could provide a force. The bill 
pledged all the revenue of the State for one hundred 
years to pay the expense, and authorized the Governor 
to borrow money from any source he could, and at the 
lowest rate he could, to defray the expenses of the cam- 
paign. The Secretary of State, William G. Blount, Major 
John Russell, a Senator, and myself, signed or indorsed 
the Governor's note for twenty thousand dollars, and 
the old patriotic State Bank lent the money which the 
note called for. 

"At this time General Jackson was lying, as he had 
been between ten and twenty days, with the wounds re- 
ceived in the battle with the Bentons and others, and 
had not been out of his room, if out of his bed. The 
Constitution of the State would not allow the bill to be- 
come a law until it had passed in each House three times 
on different days. The bill was therefore passed in each 
House on Monday, and lay in the Senate for Tuesday. 

"After the adjournment of the Houses on Monday, 
as I passed out of the Senate-chamber, I was accosted 



n^ GENERAL JACKSON. 

by a gentleman and presented with General Jackson's 
compliments and a request that I should see him forth- 
with. I had not been to his room since my arrival. I 
complied with his request, and found he was minutely 
informed of the contents of the bill I had introduced, 
and wished to know if it would pass; and said the news 
of the introduction of the bill had spread all over the 
city, and that it was called the War Bill or Parsons' Bill. 
I assured the general it would pass, and on Wednesday 
would be a law, and I mentioned that I regretted very 
much that the general entitled to command, and who all 
would desire should command the forces of the State, 
was not in a condition to take the field. To which 
General Jackson replied : 

" ' The devil in hell he is not ! ' 

" He gritted his teeth with anguish as he uttered these 
words, and groaned when he ceased to speak. I told 
him that I hoped I was mistaken, but that I did not be- 
lieve he could just then take the field. After some time 
I left the general. Two hours afterward I received fifty 
or more copies of his orders, which had been made out 
and printed in the meantime, and ordered the troops to 
rendezvous at Fayetteville, eighty miles on the way, 
on Thursday. At the bottom of the order was a note 
stating that the health of the commanding general was 
restored. 

" That evening, or the next day, I saw Dr. May, 
General Jackson's principal physician, and inquired of 
him if he thought General Jackson could possibly march. 
Dr. May said that no other man could, and that it was 
uncertain whether, with his spunk and energy, he could ; 
but that it was entirely uncertain what General Jackson 
could do in such circumstances. 

" I felt much anxiety for the country and for the 
general ; and when the general started — which was, I 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 



77 



think, on the day before the law passed — Dr. May went 
with him and returned in three or four days. I called 
on Dr. May, upon his return, and inquired how the gen- 
eral had got along ; whereupon the doctor stated that 
they had to stop the general frequently and wash him 
from head to foot in solutions of sugar of lead to keep 
down inflammation ; and that he was better, and he and 
his troops had gone on ! The Legislature then prefixed 
a supplemental bill to suspend all actions in which the 
volunteers were concerned in the courts until their re- 
turn." 

There, reader, you have Andrew Jackson — the ex- 
planation of his character, of his success, of his celebrity. 
If any one inquires of you what manner of man Andrew 
Jackson was, answer him by telling Mr. Parsons's story. 

The 4th of October was the day named in the gen- 
eral's orders for the rendezvous at Fayetteville, a village 
near the northern borders of Alabama. Ten days be- 
fore the day of rendezvous he dispatched his old friend 
and partner. Colonel Coffee, with his regiment of five 
hundred horse, and such mounted volunteers as could 
instantly join, to Huntsville, in the northern part of 
Alabama, to restore confidence to the frontier. Hunts- 
ville is a hundred miles or more from Nashville. On 
the 4th of October the energetic Coffee had reached the 
place, his force increased to nearly thirteen hundred 
men, and volunteers, as he wrote back to his com- 
mander, flocking in every hour. 

The day named for the rendezvous at Fayetteville 
was exactly one month from that on which the com- 
manding general received his wounds in the affray with 
the Bentons. He could not mount his horse without as- 
sistance when the time came for him to move toward the 
rendezvous. His left arm was bound and in a sling. He 
could not wear his coat-sleeve; nor, during any part of 



^8 GENERAL JACKSON. 

his military career, could he long endure on his left 
shoulder the weight of an epaulet. Often, in the crisis 
of a manoeuvre, some unguarded movement would send 
such a thrill of agony through his attenuated frame as 
almost to deprive him of consciousness. It could not 
have been a pleasant thought that he had squandered 
in a paltry, puerile, private contest, the strength he 
needed for the defense of his country. Grievous was 
his fault, bitter the penalty, noble the atonement. 

Traveling as fast as his healing wounds permitted, 
General Jackson reached Fayetteville on the 7th of 
October, and found that less than half of the two thou- 
sand men ordered out had assembled. But welcome 
tidings from Colonel Coffee awaited him. Hitherto he 
had chiefly feared for the safety of Mobile, and had 
anticipated a long and wxary march into southern Ala- 
bama. He now learned from Colonel Coffee's dispatch 
that the Indians seemed to have abandoned their design 
upon Mobile, and were making their way, in two parties, 
toward the borders of Georgia and Tennessee. This 
was joyful news to the enfeebled but fiery commander. 
" It is surely," he wrote back to Coffee the same even- 
ing, " high gratification to learn that the Creeks are so 
attentive to my situation as to save me the pain of 
traveling. I must not be outdone in politeness, and will 
therefore endeavor to meet them on the middle ground." 

A week was passed at Fayetteville in waiting for the 
troops, procuring supplies, organizing the regiments, 
and drilling the men; a week of intense exertion on the 
part of the general, to whom congenial employment 
brought daily restoration. 

At one o'clock on Monday, the nth of October, an 
express dashed into camp with another dispatch from 
Colonel Coffee announcing the approach of the enemy. 
The order to prepare for marching was given on the in- 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 



79 



stant. A few minutes later the express was galloping 
back to Coffee's camp, carrying a few hasty lines from 
Jackson, to the effect that in two hours he would be in 
motion with all his available force. Before three he had 
kept his word — the army was in full career toward 
Huntsville. Excited more and more, as they went, by 
rumors of Indian murders, the men marched with such 
incredible swiftness as to reach Huntsville, thirty-two 
miles from Fayetteville, by eight o'clock the same even- 
ing ! It is hard to believe that an army could march six 
miles an hour for five hours, but the fact is stated on 
what may be considered the authority of General Jack- 
son himself. At Huntsville it was found that the news 
of the rapid approach of the Indians was exaggerated. 
The next day, therefore, the force marched leisurely to 
the Tennessee River, crossed it, and toward evening came 
up with Colonel Coffee's command, encamped on the 
south side of the river. 

So far all had gone well. There they were, twenty- 
five hundred of them, in the pleasant autumn weather, 
upon a high bluff overlooking the beautiful Tennessee, 
all in high spirits, eager to be led against the enemy. 
There were jovial souls among them. David Crockett, 
then the peerless bear-hunter of the West (to be member 
of Congress by and by, to be national joker, and to 
stump the country against his present commander), was 
there with his rifle and hunting-shirt, the merriest of the 
merry, keeping the camp alive with his quaint conceits 
and marvelous narratives. He had a hereditary right 
to be there, for both his grandparents had been murdered 
by Creeks, and other relatives carried into long cap- 
tivity by them. Merriment, meanwhile, was far from 
the heart of the general. Grappling now with the 
chronic difficulty of the campaign, he was torn with im- 
patience and anxiety. 



go GENERAL JACKSON. 

Twenty-five hundred men and thirteen hundred 
horses were on a bluff of the Tennessee, on the borders 
of civilization, about to plunge into pathless woods, and 
march, no one knew how far, into the fastnesses and 
secret retreats of a savage enemy ! Such a body will 
consume ten wagon-loads of provisions every day. For 
a week's subsistence they require a thousand bushels of 
grain, twenty tons of flesh, a thousand gallons of whisky, 
and many hundredweight of miscellaneous stores. As- 
semble, suddenly, such a force in the most populous 
county of Oregon, as Oregon now is, and it would not 
be a quite easy matter, in the space of seventeen days, 
to organize a system of supply so that the army could 
march thirty miles a day into the forest and be sure of 
finding a day's ration waiting for them at the end of 
every day's march. Colonel Coffee, moreover, had been 
encamped for eight days upon the bluff, had swept the 
surrounding country of its forage, and gathered in 
nearly all the provisions it could furnish. All this 
General Jackson had expected, and hither, accordingly, 
he had directed the supplies from East Tennessee to be 
sent. 

The contractor had abundant provisions, and in- 
stantly set about dispatching them. " I believe," wrote 
General Cocke (commander of the forces of East Ten- 
nessee) to Jackson, on the 2d of October, "a thousand 
barrels of flour can be had immediately. I will send it 
on to Ditto's Landing (Jackson's camp) without delay." 
To the river's side they were sent promptly enough. 
But the Tennessee, like most of the Western rivers, is not 
navigable in its upper waters in dry seasons, and the 
flour which General Jackson expected to find awaiting 
him at Coffee's bluff was still hundreds of miles up the 
river, " waiting for a rise." His whole stock at present 
amounted to only a few days* supply. To proceed 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. gl 

seemed impossible. Nor was the cause of the delay ap- 
parent to him, since the Tennessee, where he saw it, 
flowed by in a sufficient stream. Chafing under the en- 
forced delay, like a war-horse restrained from the charge 
after the trumpet has sounded, he denounced the con- 
tractor and the contract system, and even General Cocke, 
who, zealous for the service, had gone far beyond the 
line of his duty in his efforts to forward the supplies. 

But General Jackson did better things than these. 
Perceiving now, only too clearly, that this matter of 
provisions was to be the great difficulty of the campaign, 
he sent back to Nashville his friend and quartermaster, 
Major William B. Lewis, in order that he might have 
some one there upon whose zeal and discretion he could 
entirely rely, and who would do all that man could do 
for his relief. Colonel Coffee, with a body of seven 
hundred mounted men, he sent away from his hungry 
camp to scour the banks of the Black Warrior, a branch 
of the Tombigbee. He gave the infantry who remained 
as hard a week's drilling as ever volunteers submitted 
to. Order arose from confusion ; discipline began to 
exert its potent spell, and the mob of pioneer militia 
assumed something of the aspect of an army. While 
he was thus engaged, a friendly chief (Shelocta) came 
into camp with the news that hostile Creeks in a con- 
siderable body were threatening a fort occupied by 
friendly Indians near the Ten Islands of the Coosa. 
The route thither lying in part up the Tennessee, 
Jackson resolved, with such provisions as he had, to go 
and meet the expected flotilla, and, having obtained 
supplies, to strike at once into the heart of the Indian 
country and relieve the friendly fort. He lived, during 
these anxious days, with an eye ever on the river, heart- 
sick with hope deferred. 

On the 19th of October the camp on the bluff broke 



82 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Up. Three days of marching, climbing, and road-cut- 
ting, over mountains before supposed to be impassable, 
brought the little army to Thompson's Creek, a branch 
of the Tennessee, twenty-two miles above the previous 
encampment. To his inexpressible disappointment, he 
found there neither provisions nor tidings of provisions. 
In circumstances so disheartening and unexpected most 
men would have thought it better generalship to retreat 
to the settlements and wait in safety while adequate 
arrangements were made for the support of the army. 
No such thought appears to have occurred to the gen- 
eral. Retreat at that moment would have probably 
tempted the enemy to the frontiers of Tennessee, and 
covered them with fire and desolation. Jackson halted 
his force at Thompson's Creek, and while his men were 
employed in throwing up a fort to be used as a depot 
for the still expected provisions, he sat in his tent for 
three days writing letters the most pathetic and implor- 
ing. He wrote to General Cocke and Judge Hugh L. 
White, of East Tennessee; to the Governors of Tennes- 
see and Georgia ; to the Indian agents among the Chero- 
kees and Choctaws ; to friendly Indian chiefs ; to Gen- 
eral Flourney, of New Orleans ; to various private friends 
of known public spirit — appealing to every motive of in- 
terest and patriotism that could influence men, entreat- 
ing them to use all personal exertions and public au- 
thority in forwarding supplies to his destitute army. 
"Give me provisions," was the burden of these eloquent 
letters, " and I will end this war in a month." " There is 
an enemy," he wrote, "whom I dread much more than I 
do the hostile Creeks, and whose power, I am fearful, I 
shall be first made to feel — I mean the meager monster 
Famine. I shall leave this encampment in the morning 
direct for the Ten Islands, and thence, with as little delay 
as possible, to the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa ; 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 



83 



and yet I have not on hand two days* supply of bread- 
stuffs." 

Colonel Coffee soon after joined the general. In 
twelve days he had marched two hundred miles, burned 
two Indian towns, collected three or four hundred bush- 
els of corn, and returned to the Tennessee without hav- 
ing seen a hostile Indian. Runners still arriving from 
the Ten Islands with entreaties from the friendly Indians 
for relief, Jackson, with two days' supply of bread and 
six of meat, resolved to march, and depend for subsist- 
ance upon chance and victory. Leaving Fort Deposit 
on the 25th of October, the general marched southward 
into the enemy's country as fast as the state of his com- 
missariat permitted ; halting when his corn quite gave 
out ; marching again when he procured a day's supply ; 
sending out detachments to burn villages and find hid- 
den stores ; writing letter after letter imploring succor 
from the settlements; always resolute, always in sus- 
pense. On one of these days, Colonel Dyer, who had 
been sent out with a detachment of two hundred men, 
returned to camp with twenty-nine prisoners and a con- 
siderable supply of corn, the spoils of a burned village. 
Other slight successes on the march served to keep the 
men in good spirits, but were not sufficient to lift for 
more than a moment the load of care that rested upon 
the heart of the general. A week brought the whole 
force, intact, to the banks of the Coosa, within a few 
miles of the Ten Islands, near which, at a town called 
Talluschatches, it was now known, a large body of the 
Indians had assembled. 

Talluschatches was thirteen miles from General 
Jackson's camp. On the 2d of November came the wel- 
come order to General Coffee (he had just been pro- 
moted) to march with a thousand mounted men to de- 
stroy this town. Late in the same day the detachment 



84 GENERAL JACKSON. 

were on the trail, accompanied by a body of friendly 
Creeks wearing white feathers and white deers' tails, to 
distinguish them from their hostile brethren. The next 
morning's sun shone upon Coffee and his men preparing 
to assault the town. 

On the evening of the same day. General Coffee, hav- 
ing destroyed the town, killed two hundred of the enemy, 
and buried five of his own men, led his victorious troops 
back to Jackson's camp, where he received from his 
general and the rest of the army the welcome that brave 
men give to brave men returning from triumph. Along 
with the returning horsemen, joyful with their victory, 
came into camp a sorrowful procession of prisoners, all 
women or children, all widows or fatherless, all helpless 
and destitute. They were humanely cared for by the 
troops, and soon after sent to the settlements for main- 
tenance during the war. 

On the bloody field of Talluschatches was found a 
slain mother still embracing her living infant. The 
child was brought into camp with the other prisoners, 
and Jackson, anxious to save it, endeavored to induce 
some of the Indian women to give it nourishment. 
"No," said they, "all his relations are dead; kill him 
too." This reply appealed to the heart of the general. 
He caused the child to be taken to his own tent, where, 
among the few remaining stores, was found a little brown 
sugar. This, mingled with water, served to keep the child 
alive until it could be sent to Huntsville, where it was 
nursed at Jackson's expense until the end of the cam- 
paign, and then taken to the Hermitage. Mrs. Jackson 
received it cordially ; and the boy grew up in the family, 
treated by the general and his kind wife as a son and 
favorite. 

It was General Jackson's turn next. Thirty miles 
from his encampment on the Coosa stood a small fort, 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 



85 



into which, as before intimated, a party of one hundred 
and fifty-four friendly Creeks had fled for safety. The 
site of this fort is now covered by part of the town of 
Talladega, the capital of Talladega County, Alabama, a 
thriving place of several thousand inhabitants, situated 
on a branch of the Coosa, in the midst of beautiful 
mountain scenery. This region was, at the time of 
which we are now writing, literally a howling wilderness ; 
for, while General Coffee was returning in triumph from 
Talluschatches, more than a thousand hostile Creeks 
suddenly surrounded the friendly fort and invested it so 
completely that not a man could escape. With only a 
small supply of corn, and scarcely any water, outnum- 
bered seven to one, and unable to send intelligence of 
their situation, the inmates of the fort seemed doomed 
to massacre. The assailants appear to have comported 
themselves on this occasion in the manner of a cat sure 
of her mouse. They whooped and sported around their 
prey, waiting for terror or starvation to save them the 
trouble of conquest. 

Some days passed. The sufferings of the belea- 
guered Indians from thirst began to be intolerable. A 
noted chief of the party resolved upon making one des- 
perate effort to escape and carry the news to Jackson's 
camp. Enveloping himself in the skin of a large hog, 
with the head and feet attached, he left the fort, and 
went about rooting and grunting, gradually working 
his way through the hostile host until he was beyond 
the reach of their arrows; then, throwing off his dis- 
guise, he fled with the swiftness of the wind. Not know- 
ing precisely where General Jackson was, he did not 
reach the camp till late in the evening of the next day, 
when he came in, breathless and exhausted, and told his 
story. 

This was on the 7th of November, four days after 
7 



35 GENERAL JACKSON. 

the affair of Talluschatches, during which the general 
and the troops had been busy in erecting a fortification, 
or depot, which was named Fort Strother. The army- 
was still, as it had been from the beginning of the cam- 
paign, only a few days removed from starvation. Con- 
tractors had been dismissed, new ones appointed, more 
imploring letters written, and every conceivable effort 
made, and yet no system had been devised to overcome 
the inherent difficulties of the work. To the general's 
other embarrassments was now added the care of the 
considerable number of wounded and sick, many of 
whom could not be moved. There was one encouraging 
circumstance, however. The troops from East Tennes- 
see, under Major-General Cocke and Brigadier-General 
White, had at length reached the vicinity, and a force 
under General White was expected to join the next day, 
and so bring with them some supplies. So General 
White himself had written. Jackson, at the moment 
when the messenger from the beleaguered fort arrived, 
was in his tent closing his reply to the coming general, 
to whom he imparted the new intelligence and an- 
nounced his intentions with regard to it, adding that he 
depended upon him (General White) to protect his camp 
during his own absence from it. 

Relying with the utmost possible confidence upon 
General White's arrival, Jackson, with his usual prompti- 
tude, issued orders for his whole division, except a few 
men to guard the post and attend the sick, to prepare 
for marching that very evening. He had taken the res- 
olution to rush to the relief of the friendly Creeks, justly 
supposing that the massacre of such a body, within so 
short a distance of an American army, would intimidate 
all the friendly Indians, and tend to unite the Southern 
tribes as one man against the United States. 

At one o'clock in the morning of November 8th, 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 



87 



eight hundred horsemen and twelve hundred foot, under 
command of General Jackson, stood on the bank of the 
Coosa, one mile above Fort Strother, ready to cross. 
The river was wide, but fordable for horsemen. Each of 
the mounted men, taking behind him one of the infantry, 
rode across the river and then returned for another. 
This operation consumed so long a time that it was 
nearly four o'clock in the morning before the whole force 
was drawn up on the opposite bank prepared to move. 
A long and weary march through a country wild and 
uninhabited brought them about sunset within six miles 
of Talladega. There the general thought it best to halt 
and give repose to the troops, taking precautions to 
conceal his presence from the enemy. 

There was no repose for the general that night. Till 
late in the evening he remained awake, receiving reports 
from the spies sent out to reconnoitre the enemy's posi- 
tion, and making arrangements for the morrow's work. 
At midnight an Indian came into the camp with a dis- 
patch from General White, announcing, to Jackson's 
inexpressible astonishment and dismay, that, in conse- 
quence of positive orders from General Cocke, he would 
not be able to protect Fort Strother, but must return 
and rejoin his general immediately. No other explana- 
tion was given. Jackson was in sore perplexity. To 
go forward, was to leave the sick and wounded at Fort 
Strother to the mercy of any strolling party of savages. 
To retreat, would bring certain destruction upon the 
friendly Creeks, and probably the whole besieging force 
upon his own rear. In this painful dilemma he resolved 
upon the boldest measures and the wisest — to strike the 
foe in his front at the dawn of day, and, having deliv- 
ered the inmates of the fort, hasten from the battlefield 
to the protection of Fort Strother. 

Before four in the morning the army was in full 



38 GENERAL JACKSON. 

march toward the enemy. A sudden and vigorous at- 
tack soon put to flight the besieging host, and set free 
the loyal Creeks, whose delight at their escape is de- 
scribed to have been affecting in the extreme. Besides 
being nearly dead from thirst, they were anticipating an 
assault that very day, and had no knowledge of Jack- 
son's approach until they heard the noise of the battle. 
Fifteen minutes after the action became general the sav- 
ages were flying headlong in every direction and falling 
fast under the swords of the pursuing troops. The de- 
livered Creeks ran out of the fort, and, having appeased 
their raging thirst, thronged around their deliverer, tes- 
tifying their delight and gratitude. The little corn that 
they could spare the general bought and distributed 
among his hungry men and horses. He had left Fort 
Strother with only provisions for little more than one 
day, and the supply obtained from the Creeks amounted 
to less than a meal for his victorious army. 

The dead honorably buried, and the wounded placed 
in litters, the troops marched back to Fort Strother the 
day after the battle. They arrived tired and hungry, 
yet fondly hoping that in their absence some supplies 
had been collected. Not a peck of meal, not a pound 
of flesh had reached the fort, and they found their sick 
and wounded comrades as hungry as themselves. It 
was a bitter moment. The general was in an agony of 
disappointment and apprehension. The men, though 
returning from victory, murmured ominously. Until 
this day the general and his staff had subsisted upon 
private stores procured and transported at his own ex- 
pense. Before leaving for Talladega he had directed 
the surgeons to draw upon these if necessary for the 
maintenance of the sick, and upon his return he found 
that all had been consumed except a few pounds of bis- 
cuit. These were immediately distributed among the 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 89 

hungry applicants, not one being reserved for the gen- 
eral. Concealing his feelings and assuming a cheerful 
aspect, he went among the men and endeavored to give 
the affair a jocular turn. He went with his staff to the 
slaughtering-place of the camp and brought away from 
the refuse there the means of satisfying his appetite, 
declaring with a smiling face that tripe was a savory 
and nutritious article of fpod, and that for his part he 
desired nothing better. For several days succeeding, 
while a few lean cattle were the only support of the 
army, General Jackson and his military family subsisted 
upon tripe, without bread or seasoning. 

Jackson soon saw the effect of his brilliant success 
at Talladega. The Hillabee warriors, who had been 
defeated in that battle, at once sent a messenger to Fort 
Strother to sue for peace. Jackson's reply was prompt 
and characteristic. His Government, he said, had taken 
up arms to avenge the most gross depredations, and to 
bring back to a sense of duty a people to whom it had 
shown the utmost kindness. When those objects were 
attained the war would cease, but not till then. " Upon 
those," he continued, "who are disposed to become 
friendly, I neither wish nor intend to make war, but 
they must afford evidences of the sincerity of their pro- 
fessions; the prisoners and property they have taken 
from us and the friendly Creeks must be restored ; the 
instigators of the war, and the murderers of our citizens, 
must be surrendered ; the latter must and will be made 
to feel the force of our resentment. Long shall they 
remember Fort Mims in bitterness and tears." 

The Hillabee messenger, who was an old Scotchman, 
long domesticated among the Indians, departed with 
Jackson's reply. It was never delivered. Before the 
message reached the Hillabees an event occurred which 
banished from their minds all thought of peace, chang- 



go GENERAL JACKSON. 

ing them from suppliants for pardon into enemies the 
most resolute and deadly of all the Indians in the South- 
ern country. General White, of East Tennessee, totally 
unaware of the state of feeling among the Hillabees, 
nay^ supposing them to be inveterately hostile, marched 
rapidly into their country, burning and destroying. On 
his way he burned one village of thirty houses, and 
another of ninety-three. The principal Hillabee town, 
whence had proceeded the messenger to Jackson asking 
peace, and whither that messenger was to return that 
day. General White surprised at daybreak, killed sixty 
warriors, and captured two hundred and fifty women and 
children. Having burned the town, he returned to Gen- 
eral Cocke, supposing that he had done the State some 
service. 

The feelings of the Hillabee tribe may be imagined. 
This^ then, is General Jackson's answer to our humble 
suit ! Thus does he respond to friendly overtures ! 
They never knew General Jackson's innocence of this 
deed. From that time to the end of the war it was 
observed that the Indians fought with greater fury and 
persistence than before, for they fought with the blended 
energy of hatred and despair. There was no suing for 
peace, no asking for quarter. To fight as long as they 
could stand, and as much longer as they could sit or 
kneel, and then as long as they had strength to shoot an 
arrow or pull a trigger, were all that they supposed re- 
mained to them after the destruction of the Hillabees. 

" An army, like a serpent, goes upon its belly," 
Frederick of Prussia used to say. " Few men know," 
Marshal MacMahon is reported to have remarked after 
one of the Italian battles, " how important it is in war 
for soldiers not to be kept waiting for their rations, and 
what vast events depend upon an army's not going into 
action before it has had its coffee." 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 



91 



We left General Jackson at Fort Strother, giving out 
his last biscuit to his hungry troops and appeasing his 
own appetite with unseasoned tripe. Then followed 
ten long weeks of agonizing perplexity, during which, 
though the enemy was unmolested by the Tennessee 
troops, their general appeared in a light more truly 
heroic than at any other part of his military life. His 
fortitude, his will, alone saved the campaign. His burn- 
ing letters kept the cause alive in the State ; his example, 
resolution, activity, and courage preserved the conquests 
already achieved, and prepared the way for others that 
threw them into the shade. The spectacle of a brave 
man contending with difficulties is one in which the 
gods were said to take delight. Such a spectacle was 
exhibited by Andrew Jackson during these weeks of 
enforced inaction. 

Hunger, that great tamer of beasts and men, is pre- 
cisely the enemy against which amateur soldiers are 
least able to contend. Lounging and dozing about the 
camp, unable to make the slightest attempt against the 
foe, their first love of adventure satisfied, desirous to 
recount their exploits to friends at home, pining for the 
abundance they had left, anxious for their farms and 
families, and angered at the supposed neglect of the 
State authorities and contractors, the troops became dis- 
contented, and began to clamor for the order to return 
into the settlements. Jackson's force consisted of two 
kinds of troops, militia and volunteers. It seemed at 
first a proof of the safety of the purely voluntary prin- 
ciple that it was among the militia that the discontents 
took quickest root ; the pride of the volunteers keeping 
them firm in their duty after the militia were resolved 
to abandon theirs. It is said, however, that some of 
the volunteers who, from their having accompanied the 
general on his fruitless march to Natchez, were looked 



Q2 GENERAL JACKSON. 

upon as the veterans of the army, were not the last to 
join the malcontents, nor the most moderate in express- 
ing their feelings. These men spoke with a kind of 
oracular authority, which had influence with the younger 
soldiers. Some of the officers, too, overcome by that 
bane and blight of republican virtue, the lust of popu- 
larity, secretly sided with the men and fomented their 
mutinous disposition. In secluded places about the 
camp, by the watch fires at night, wherever a group of 
hungry soldiers were together, they talked of their 
wrongs, of the uselessness of remaining where they 
were, and how much better it would be for the army to 
return home for a while, and finish the war under better 
auspices at a more convenient season. 

In circumstances like these revolt ripens apace. Ten 
days of gnawing hunger and inaction at Fort Strother 
brought all the militia regiments to the resolution of 
marching back in a body to the settlements, with or 
without the consent of the commanding general, and a 
day was fixed upon for their departure. Jackson heard 
of it in time. On the designated morning the militia 
began the homeward movement ; but they found a lion 
in the path. The general was up before them, and had 
drawn up on the road leading to the settlements the 
whole body of volunteers, with orders to prevent the 
departure of the militia, peaceably if they could, forcibly 
if they must. The militia, in this unexpected posture 
of affairs, renounced their intention, and, obeying the 
orders of the general, returned to their position and 
their duty. 

It soon, appeared, however, that the volunteers were 
as much chagrined and disappointed at the success of 
this movement as the militia, and, ere night closed in, 
resolved themselves to depart on the following day. 
The general, apprised of their intention, was again early 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 



93 



in the field. Imagine the surprise of the volunteers 
when, on taking the projected line of march, they found 
drawn up in hostile array to prevent them the very 
militia whose departure they had frustrated the day 
before ! The militia stood firm, and the volunteers, not 
without some grim laughter at this practical revolt, 
returned to their stations. The cavalry, however, hav- 
ing petitioned the general for permission to retire to 
Huntsville long enough to recruit their famished horses, 
promising to return when that object was accomplished, 
were allowed to leave. Jackson remained in the wilder- 
ness with his thousand infantry, now sullen and enraged, 
and rapidly approaching the point of downright mutiny. 
As was his wont in every crisis, the general tried the 
effect of a patriotic address. Inviting the ofiicers of all 
grades to his quarters, he first laid before them the let- 
ters last received from Tennessee, which gave assurance 
that a plentiful supply of provisions was already on the 
way, and that measures were in operation which would 
insure a sufficiency in future. He then delivered a warm 
and energetic speech, extolling their past achievements, 
lamenting their privations, and urging them still to per- 
severe. The conquests they had already made, he said, 
were of the greatest importance, and the most dreadful 
consequences would result from abandoning them. " To 
be sure," said he in conclusion, " we do not live sumptu- 
ously, but no one has died of hunger, or is likely to 
die; and then, how animating are our prospects ! Large 
supplies are at Deposit, and already are officers dis- 
patched to hasten them on. Wagons are on the way ; 
a large number of beeves are in the neighborhood, and 
detachments are out to bring them in. All these re- 
sources can not fail. I have no wish to starve you — 
none to deceive you. Stay contentedly ; and if supplies 
do not arrive in two days, we will all march back to- 



g^ GENERAL JACKSON. 

gather, and throw the blame of our failure where it 
should properly lie. Until then we certainly have the 
means of subsisting; and if we are compelled to bear 
privations, let us remember that they are borne for our 
country, and are not greater than many, perhaps most, 
armies have been compelled to endure. I have called 
you together to tell you my feelings and my wishes. 
This evening think on them seriously, and let me know 
yours in the morning." 

The officers returned to their quarters and consulted 
with the troops. On this occasion, whether from a spirit 
of rivalry or the sense of duty, the militia proved more 
tractable than the volunteers ; for, on the return of the 
officers to Jackson's tent, the officers of the volunteer 
regiments reported that nothing short of an immediate 
return to the settlements could prevent the forcible de- 
parture of their men ; but the militia officers declared 
the willingness of their troops to remain long enough to 
ascertain whether supplies could be obtained. " If they 
can," said they, " let us proceed with the campaign ; if 
not, let us be marched back to where they can be pro- 
cured." 

The general thought it best to take both bodies at 
their word. He sent one regiment of volunteers to meet 
the coming provisions, ordering them to return with them 
as an escort. The other volunteer regiment, shamed by 
the superior fortitude of the militia, agreed to stay two 
days longer; and thus the general gained a brief respite 
from his torturing solicitude. These departing volun- 
teers were the very men whom Jackson had refused to 
abandon at Natchez, even at the command of the Gov- 
ernment, and for whose safe return he had pledged and 
risked his fortune. That they should have been the first, 
in his sore perplexity, to abandon him, was an event 
which gave him the most acute mortification. 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 



95 



The two days passed. No provisions arrived. The 
militia demanded the prompt fulfillment of the general's 
promise. He was now in the dilemma that Columbus 
would have been in if land had not been descried in three 
days. Overwhelmed with despondency, he lifted up his 
hands and exclaimed, after long brooding over his situa- 
tion, " If only two men will remain with me, I will never 
abandon the post ! " One Captain Gordon replied, in a 
jocular manner, " You have one, general ; let us see if 
we can not find another," He set about seeking volun- 
teers, and, aided by the general's staff, soon obtained 
the names of one hundred and nine men who agreed to 
remain and defend the fort. Rejoicing at this result, 
the general left Fort Strother in their charge, and 
marched himself, with the rest of the troops, toward 
Fort Deposit, upon the explicit understanding that, hav- 
ing met the expected provisions, and having satisfied 
their hunger, they were to return with the provision 
train to Fort Strother and proceed against the enemy. 
It was to insure the performance of this engagement 
that he commanded them in person. 

Away they marched, haggard and hungry, but in 
high spirits, and praying Heaven that they might not 
meet the coming supplies — so desperate was their desire 
to return home. To Jackson's inexpressible joy, and to 
the dismay of his troops, they had not marched more 
than twelve miles before they saw approaching them a 
drove of one hundred and fifty cattle. Halt, kill, and 
eat, was the word. The slaughtering, the cooking, and 
the devouring were quickly accomplished; and the army, 
filled with beef and valor, felt itself able to cope even 
with General Jackson. To return to Fort Strother was 
the furthest from their thoughts. When the order to 
return was given, the general himself was not in the 
immediate presence of the troops, and the order was not 



q6 general JACKSON. 

obeyed. One company moved off on the homeward 
road, had gone some distance, and were about to be 
followed by others, when word was brought to Jackson 
of the mutiny. Followed by his staff and a few faithful 
friends, he galloped in pursuit, and came by a detour to 
a part of the road a little in advance of the deserters, 
where he found General Coffee and a small force. Form- 
ing these across the road, he ordered them to fire upon 
the deserters if they should persist in their attempt to 
leave. On coming up, the homesick gentlemen gave 
one glance at the fiery general and the opposing force, 
and fled precipitately to their stations. 

The manner, appearance, and language of General 
Jackson on occasions like this were literally terrific. 
Few common men could stand before the ferocity of his 
aspect and the violence of his words. On the present 
occasion, I presume that the mutineers were put to 
flight as much by the terrible aspect of the general as 
by the armed men who were with him. We can fancy 
the scene — Jackson in advance of Coffee's men, his 
grizzled hair bristling up from his forehead, his face as 
red as fire, his eyes sparkling and flashing ; roaring out 
with the voice of a Stentor and the energy of Andrew 
Jackson, "By the immaculate God ! I'll blow the damned 
villains to eternity if they advance another step ! " 

Trusting that the men would now do their duty, the 
general went among them, leaving General Coffee and 
his own staff to proceed with the preparations for de- 
parture. He found almost the whole brigade infected 
and on the point of moving toward home. Upon the 
instant, he resolved to prevent this or perish in the path 
before them. He seized a musket and rode a few paces 
in advance of the troops. His left arm was still in a 
sling. Leaning his musket on his horse's neck, he swore 
he would shoot the first maa that attempted to proceed. 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 



97 



Meanwhile, General Coffee and Major Reid, suspecting 
that something extraordinary was occurring, ran up, and 
found their general in this attitude, with the column of 
mutineers standing in sullen silence before him, not a 
man daring to stir a foot forward. Placing themselves 
by his side, they awaited the result with intense anxiety. 
Gradually a few of the troops, who were still faithful, 
were collected behind the general, armed, and resolved 
to use their arms in his support. For some minutes the 
column of mutineers stood firm to their purpose, and it 
only needed one man bold enough to advance to bring 
on a bloody scene. They , wavered, however, at length 
abandoned their purpose, and agreed to return to their 
duty. It afterward appeared that the musket which 
figured so effectually in this scene was too much out of 
order to be discharged ! 

The troops were not in the highest spirits nor in the 
most amiable humor as they marched back to Fort 
Strother that afternoon. Yet they marched back, and 
the frontiers were still safe. Jackson did not return 
with them, but proceeded to Fort Deposit, to inspect 
that post and personally hasten forward supplies. Pro- 
digious exertions were now put forth. Major Lewis 
surpassed himself. Two hundred pack-horses and forty 
wagons were taken into service by him. From this 
time the operations of the army were not seriously im- 
peded by the want of supplies. News now came that 
the measures so hastily adopted by the State of Tennes- 
see had been approved by the Government at Washing- 
ton, and that the whole force employed had been re- 
ceived into the service of the United States. Jackson 
rejoined his division in high spirits, and was rejoiced to 
find that the works at Fort Strother had been vigorously 
carried on in his absence. Nothing seemed now to op- 
pose the successful prosecution of the war. A few swift 



gS GENERAL JACKSON. 

marches, a few well-fought engagements, and the troops 
might return home, the general thought, to receive the 
applause of the State and the nation. Ordering General 
Cocke to join him at Fort Strother, with the troops 
from East Tennessee, he expected nothing but to renew 
the contest upon their arrival. 

But the general was reckoning without his army. 
The volunteers, penetrated with the spirit of discontent, 
soon provided themselves with a new argument for 
abandoning the service. The first days of December 
were now passing. It was on the loth of December, 
1812, that these volunteers had entered into service, 
engaging, as they said, to serve one year. They ac- 
cordingly made no secret of their intention to leave the 
camp on the loth of December, 1813. But they were 
now reckoning without their general, who recalled to 
their recollection that they had engaged to serve one 
year in two ! They had been subject to the call of the 
Government for a year, but for more than half of that 
period they had been at home, pursuing their own af- 
fairs. Nothing short, maintained the general, of three 
hundred and sixty-five days of actual service in the 
field could release them from their obligation before the 
loth of December, 1814. 

Such was the new issue between the general and the 
volunteers. It was warmly argued, with the inevitable 
effect of confirming each in the opinion that accorded 
with his desire. The general was clear in the belief that 
he was in the right ; but he seems, from the beginning 
of this contest, to have seen that it was useless to at- 
tempt new enterprises unless seconded by the alacrity 
of his men. Therefore, while firmly resisting the de- 
parture of the troops, he saw the necessity of procuring 
new levies from the State, and to this object devoted his 
energies. General Roberts, Colonel Carroll, and Major 



' THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. gg 

Searcy, officers high in his confidence, were dispatched 
to Tennessee to hasten the assembling of a new army ; 
while Jackson wrote letter upon letter to influential 
friends, urging them to aid the cause by personal 
efforts. 

But to raise a new force and march it a hundred and 
fifty miles into the Indian country was necessarily a 
work of considerable time, during which we see the gen- 
eral — some of his best officers away recruiting, and his 
right arm, General Coffee, sick at Huntsville — contend- 
ing almost alone with a fractious soldiery. Defeated 
in their previous attempts at forcible departure, these 
men now tried to move their commander by argument 
and entreaty. A formal letter from one of the colonels, 
which Jackson received a few days before the dreaded 
loth of December, expressed the feelings of the troops. 
It made known to him that the whole body of volun- 
teers retained the unalterable opinion that they would 
be entitled to a legal release on the loth. " They 
therefore look to their general, who holds their confi- 
dence, for an honorable discharge on that day, and 
that in every respect he will see that justice be done 
them." 

An appeal like this was harder for a man of Jack- 
son's cast of character to resist than armed mutiny. 
He had no choice but to resist it. It was essential to 
the safety of the frontiers that these men should remain 
in service, at least until they could be relieved by other 
troops. Jackson's reply to this letter was moderate and 
unanswerable. 

"The moment," said he, ''it is signified to me by 
any competent authority, even by the Governor of 
Tennessee, to whom I have written on the subject, or 
by General Pinckney, who is now appointed to the 
command, that the volunteers may be exonerated from 



100 GENERAL JACKSON. 

further service, that moment I will pronounce it with 
the greatest satisfaction. I have only the power of pro- 
nouncing a discharge — not of giving it — in any case ; 
a distinction which I would wish should be borne in mind. 
Already have I sent to raise volunteers, on my own re- 
sponsibility, to complete a campaign which has been so 
happily begun, and thus far so fortunately prosecuted. 
The moment they arrive — and I am assured that, fired by 
our exploits, they will hasten in crowds on the first intima- 
tion that we need their services — they will be substi- 
tuted in the place of those who are discontented here. 
The latter will then be permitted to return to their 
homes, with all the honor which under such circum- 
stances they can carry along with them. But I still 
cherish the hope that their dissatisfaction and com- 
plaints have been greatly exaggerated. I can not, must 
not believe, that the * Volunteers of Tennessee,' a name 
ever dear to fame, will disgrace themselves, and a 
country which they have honored, by abandoning her 
standard as mutineers and deserters; but should I be 
disappointed, and compelled to resign this pleasing hope, 
one thing I will not resign — my duty. Mutiny and 
sedition, so long as I possess tlie power of quelling them, 
shall be put down ; and even when left destitute of this, 
I will still be found in the last extremity endeavoring 
to discharge the duty I owe my country and myself." 

The afternoon of the 9th ended. The frenzy of the 
men to return was such that they were determined not 
even to wait for the morning, but to march at the very 
moment their last day's service had been rendered. Jack- 
son was in his tent, not anticipating a movement that 
evening, when an officer suddenly entered and informed 
him that the whole brigade Was in mutiny and prepar- 
ing to march off in a body. He dashed upon paper the 
following order : " The commanding general being in- 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. jqi 

formed that an actual mutiny exists in the camp, all 
officers and soldiers are commanded to put it down. 
The officers and soldiers of the First Brigade will with- 
out delay parade on the west side of the fort, and await 
further orders." 

He further ordered the artillery company, with their 
two small pieces of cannon,4:o take position in front and 
rear, and the militia to be drawn up; on an eminence 
commanding the road upon which the volunteers in- 
tended to march. These orders were obeyed with sur- 
prising alacrity, for Jao|:son was now in that mood that 
men felt it perilous to resist. The general mounted his 
horse and rode up to the., line of volunteers, as they 
stood along the western side of the fort, silent, sullen, 
and determined. He broke at once into an impassioned 
yet not angry address. He praised their former good 
conduct. He dwelt upon the disgrace that would fall 
upon themselves and their families if they should carry 
home with them the name of mutineers and deserters. 
Never should they do it^but by passing over his dead 
body ! He would do his duty at any cost ; a);, even if 
he perished there before them, dying honorably at his 
post. " Re-enforcement^" said he, " are preparing to 
hasten to my assistan^^e; it can4iot be long before they 
arrive. I am, too, in daily expectation of receiving in- 
formation whether you may t)e discharged or not. 
Until then you must not, and shall not retire. I have 
done with entreaty; it has been used long enough ; I 
will attempt it no more. You must now determine 
whether you will go or peaceably remain. If you still 
persist in your determination to move forcibly off, the 
point between us shail soon be decided." 

He paused. No one Answered ; no one moved. " I 
demand an explicit answer," said the general. There 
was still no response. He ordered the artillerymen to 



102 GENERAL JACKSON. 

be ready with their matches, himself remaining in front 
of the mutineers and within the line of fire. The men 
now evidently hesitated. Whispers ran along the line 
recommending a return to duty. Soon the officers stepped 
forward and assured the general that the troops were 
willing to remain at the fort until the arrival of re-en- 
forcements, or of the answer to General Jackson's in- 
quiries respecting their term of service. The men were 
dismissed to their quarters, and the general was once 
more victorious. 

Jackson had triumphed only so far as to secure the 
presence of the men at the post. He now made an effort 
to restore his army to contentment. The near approach 
of General Cocke having strengthened his position, he 
resolved to permit the homesick brigade to march to 
Tennessee, there to be dismissed or retained as the Gov- 
ernor should decide. 

General Cocke reached Fort Strother on the 12th of 
December with his division of two thousand men. Jack- 
son learned, however, that the term of service of more 
than half of this body was on the very point of expiring, 
and that none of them had longer than a month to serve. 
Nor were any of them provided with clothing suitable 
for a winter campaign. Retaining eight hundred of 
these troops, who owed still a month's service, Jackson 
ordered General Cocke to march the rest of his division 
back to the settlements, there to dismiss them, and to 
enroll a new force, properly provided, and engaged to 
serve six months. He addressed the departing troops, 
entreating them to join the new army as soon as they 
had procured their clothing, and return to him and aid 
in completing the conquest of the enemy. 

These were dark days for General Jackson. Every- 
thing went wrong. The return of so many troops, bear- 
ing with them the feelings they did, giving out that, 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 



103 



after enduring privations, gaining victories, and holding 
the savages in check for two months, they had been re- 
fused an honorable dismissal and sent home almost in 
disgrace, threw a damper upon the efforts to raise new 
men and spread discontent among those already engaged. 
Even the horsemen of General Coffee, who had been 
allowed to leave Fort Strother for a while to recruit 
their horses at home, could not be induced to return to 
duty. Assembling at the call of the gallant Coffee, they 
heard the tale of the returning troops, caught their spirit, 
and became mutinous, riotous, and unmanageable. At 
length they broke away in a tumultuous mass toward 
home. General Coffee galloped in pursuit, accompanied 
by the eloquent Blackburn, and both addressed the fugi- 
tives with all the persuasive energy of which they were 
capable. But in vain. Nearly to a man the cavalry 
brigade rode away, rioting and wasting as they went, 
and were seen as an organized body no more. 

Affairs were little better at Jackson's own camp. He 
had fourteen hundred men at Fort Strother, of whom 
eight hundred would be free to return home in four 
weeks. The remaining six hundred were militia who 
had been called out upon the receipt of the news of Fort 
Mims, by an act of the Legislature which, most unfor- 
tunately, did not specify any time of service. Three 
months, said the militia, is the term established by King 
Precedent. By no means, replied Jackson ; the omission 
in the act must be supplied hy Xht ^hvdiSQ for the war. 
The militia were summoned, he maintained, for the pur- 
pose of avenging Fort Mims and conquering a lasting 
peace. These objects accomplished, the work for which 
the troops were engaged would be done, and they would 
be entitled to an honorable discharge; but not till then. 

Here were the elements of new discontents and new 
mutinies. The three months would expire on the 4th of 



104 GENERAL JACKSON. 

January, and already the latter half of December was 
gliding away. Thus, in two weeks Jackson was threat- 
ened with the loss of six hundred of his troops, and in 
four weeks the remaining eight hundred would certainly 
depart. The campaign was falling to pieces in every 
direction. Jackson's military career seemed about to 
close in disgrace, and the glory of the Tennessee volun- 
teers to be extinguished forever. But this was not all. 
Disaster menaced every assailable portion of the South- 
west. Letters came from General Pinckney, the chief 
in command in that region, ordering General Jackson to 
hold all his posts, since it had become a matter of the 
first national importance to deprive the British of their 
Indian allies. 

How anxiously, in such circumstances, General Jack- 
son looked for news from Tennessee may be imagined. 
Help from that quarter alone could save him, and that 
help he had implored from Governor Blount, who alone 
could grant it. The expected dispatch from Nashville 
reached Fort Strother at length, and proved to be a 
most disheartening response to Jackson's entreaties. 
The Governor feared to transcend his authority. Hav- 
ing called out all the troops authorized by Congress and 
the Legislature, what could he do more ? The campaign 
had failed, he said, and he advised General Jackson to 
give up a struggle which could have no favorable issue, 
and return home ; to wait until the General Government 
should provide the means requisite for carrying on the 
war with vigor. 

Not for one instant did Jackson concur in this view 
of the situation. He was of that temper which gained 
new determination from other men's despair. The last 
ounce stiffened his back, but did not break it. He went 
to his tent and wrote to the Governor the best letter he 
ever wrote in his life — one of those historical epistles 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 105 

which do the work of a campaign in rolling back the tide 
of events. This eloquent epistle convinced and roused 
Governor Blount. He forthwith ordered a new levy of 
twenty-five hundred men to rendezvous at Fayetteville 
on the 28th of January, to serve for three months, and 
authorized General Cocke to obey Jackson's order for 
raising a new division of East Tennesseeans. The as- 
pect of affairs in the State was immediately changed. 
The noise of preparation was everywhere heard. There 
was a furbishing of arms and a tramp of marching men 
in all quarters of the State. In a few days the honor- 
able scruples of the Governor were completely set at 
rest by a dispatch from the Secretary of War, which more 
than covered all he had done, and sanctioned any fur- 
ther requisition of men which he might deem necessary. 
If Jackson could but hold his position a few weeks 
longer, there was every prospect of his being able once 
more to act with efficiency. 

From the middle of December to the middle of Jan- 
uary General Jackson was called upon to endure every 
description of mortification and difficulty known to bor- 
der warfare. On the 4th of January his six hundred 
militia, in spite of warning and entreaty, and after scenes 
of violence similar to those already related, marched 
homeward. On the 14th, the eight hundred of General 
Cocke's division, whose term of service then expired, 
were earnestly besought to remain, if only for twenty 
days. The savages were in motion again, and threat- 
ened the frontiers of Georgia. Jackson implored these 
men to make one excursion into the enemy's country, to 
strike one blow at them, for the purpose of at least 
diverting or dividing their force and giving an easier 
victory to the Georgia troops. But no ; their minds 
were set resolutely homeward, and away they marched, 
leaving him with a mere handful of men to guard the 



Io6 GENERAL JACKSON. 

post. Moreover, the new recruits could not be induced 
to engage for six months. Colonel Carroll, rather than 
bring back no men, had enlisted a body of horse for 
two months only, and General Roberts returned with 
infantry engaged for three. These men General Jack- 
son was obliged to accept, or be left alone in the 
wilderness. 

On the 15th of January, then, we find the general at 
Fort Strother with nine hundred raw recruits, who had 
come out with the expectation of making a single raid 
into the Indian territory and then to return to narrate 
their exploits and draw their pay. Such troops it is 
dangerous to keep in inaction for a single week. The 
regular levies from Tennessee could not be expected for 
a month to come. The necessity of striking a blow at 
the exulting enemy was pressing. In these circum- 
stances, Jackson, with the daring prudence that charac- 
terized his career, resolved upon instant action, and 
gave the order to prepare for marching against the 
foe. 

" On the evening of the 20th I encamped at Enota- 
chopco, a small Hillabee village about twelve miles from 
Emuckfau. Here I began to perceive very plainly how 
little knowledge my spies had of the country, of the sit- 
uation of the enemy, or of the distance I was from them. 
The insubordination of the new troops, and the want of 
skill in most of their officers, also became more and 
more apparent. But their ardor to meet the enemy was 
not diminished, and I had sure reliance upon the guards, 
and upon the company of old volunteer officers, and 
upon the spies, in all about one hundred and twenty-five. 
My wrshes and my duty remained united, and I was de- 
termined to effect, if possible, the objects for which the 
excursion had been principally undertaken. 

" On the morning of the 21st I marched from Enota- 



THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. jq^ 

chopco as direct as I could for the bend of the Talla- 
poosa, and about two made a swift incursion into the 
enemy's country, during which hard blows were dealt 
them, keeping the restless men loyal to their duty, and 
prepared the way for the next and decisive operations 
of the war." 



CHAPTER X. 

THE FINISHING BLOW. 

The excursion over, and the new levies from Tennes- 
see approaching, Jackson dismissed his victorious troops, 
whose term of service was about to expire. He bade 
them farewell in an address abounding in kind and flat- 
tering expressions ; and they left him feeling all that 
soldiers usually feel toward the general who has led 
them to victory. 

The return of these troops, animated by such senti- 
ments, gave a new impetus to the cause in Tennessee, 
and fired the troops who were on their way to the seat 
of war with new zeal. From all quarters came volun- 
teers, hurrying toward the standard of the successful gen- 
eral, whose prospects now brightened with every day's 
dispatches. On the 3d of February came news that two 
thousand East Tennesseeans were far on their way to 
join him. A day or two after, a dispatch informed the 
general that nearly as many West Tennessee troops had 
reached Huntsville and waited his orders. On the 6th 
marched into Fort Strother the Thirty-ninth Regiment of 
United States infantry, six hundred strong, under Colo- 
nel Williams — a most important acquisition. Into this 
regiment one Sam Houston had recently enlisted as a 
private soldier, and made his way to the rank of ensign — 
the same Sam Houston who was afterward President of 
Texas and Senator of the United States. 

In addition to this re-enforcement, there came in. 



THE FINISHING BLOW. IO9 

soon after, a part of General Coffee's old brigade of 
mounted men, and a troop of dragoons from East Ten- 
nessee. The Choctaw Indians now openly joined the 
peace party, and asked orders from General Jackson. 
There was no lack of men of any description. Long 
before February closed Jackson was at the head of an 
army of five thousand men, all within a few days' march 
of Fort Strother, waiting only till the general could accu- 
mulate twenty days' rations to march in and strike, as 
they hoped, a finishing blow at the enemy. 

Six weeks of intense labor on the part of the general 
and his army were required to complete the preparations 
for the decisive movement. The middle of March had 
arrived. The various divisions of the army were assem- 
bled at Fort Strother, and the requisite quantity of pro- 
visions had been accumulated. A system of expresses 
had been established for the conveyance of information 
to General Pinckney and Governor Blount. With much 
difficulty, one man had been found competent to beat 
the ordinary calls on the drum, and this one drum was 
the sole music of the army. Deducting the strong 
guards to be left at the posts already established, the 
force about to march against the enemy amounted to 
about three thousand men. 

The attention of the reader is now to be directed to 
a remarkable " bend " of the river Tallapoosa, about 
fifty-five miles from Fort Strother, the scene, for so many 
weeks, of General Jackson's strenuous endeavors. 

The Tallapoosa and the Coosa are the rivers which 
unite in the southern part of Alabama and form the 
Alabama River. The bend of which we speak is about 
midway between the source and the mouth of the Talla- 
poosa. It occurs where the stream is not fordable during 
the spring rains, but is not wide enough to present a 
serious obstacle to an Indian swimmer. From the shape 



no GENERAL JACKSON. 

of this peninsula the Indians called it Tohopeka, which 
means horseshoe. It contains a hundred acres of land, 
since a cotton field. The neck, or isthmus, is about 
three hundred and fifty yards across. The ground rises 
somewhat from the edge of the water. It was a wild, 
rough piece of ground, abounding in places which would 
afford covert to an Indian warrior. At the time of which 
we write the surrounding country for a hundred miles 
or more was a nearly unbroken wilderness of forest, 
swamp, and cane, marked only by the trail of wild beasts 
and the "trace " of wild men. As well from its situation 
as its form this place was entitled to be styled the heart 
of the Indian country. 

Here it was that the evil genius of the Creeks 
prompted them to assemble the warriors of all the tribes 
residing in that vicinity, to make a stand against the 
great army with which, their runners told them, General 
Jackson was preparing to overrun the Indian country. 
The long delays at Fort Strother had given them time 
to prepare for his reception, and they had improved that 
time. Across the neck of the peninsula they had built 
(of logs) a breastwork of immense strength, pierced with 
two rows of port-holes. The line of defense was so 
drawn that an approaching enemy would we exposed 
both to a direct and a raking fire. Behind the breast- 
work was a mass of logs and brushwood, such as Indians 
delight to fight from. At the bottom of the peninsula, 
near the river, was a village of huts. The banks of the 
river were fringed with the canoes of the savage garri- 
son, so that they possessed the means of retreat as well 
as of defense. The greater part of the peninsula was 
still covered with the primeval forest. Within this ex- 
tensive fortification were assembled about nine hundred 
warriors of various Creek tribes, and about three hun- 
dred women and children. 



THE FINISHING BLOW. HI 

The Indian force was small to defend so extensive a 
line of fortification. But a variety of circumstances 
conspired to give the savage garrison confidence : such 
as the impregnable strength of the breastwork, its pecul- 
iar construction, the facilities afforded in the interior of 
the bend for the Indian mode of fighting, the partial 
successes gained by the Indians at Emuckfau and Eno- 
tachopco — of which they continually boasted, averring 
that they had made " Captain Jackson " run — and, above 
all, the positive and reiterated predictionsof their proph- 
ets. Three of the most famous of the prophets were 
there, performing their incantations day and night, and 
keeping alive that religious fury which had played so 
great a part in previous battles. And besides, in case 
the breastwork was carried and the bend overrun, how 
easy to rush to the canoes and paddle across the river, 
laughing at their baffled assailants as they vanished into 
the woods on the opposite shore ! So thought the 
Creeks. 

Jackson was eleven days in marching his army the 
fifty-five miles of untrodden wilderness that lay between 
Fort Strother and the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa. 
Roads had to be cut, the Coosa explored, boats waited 
for and rescued from the shoals, high ridges crossed, 
Fort Williams built and garrisoned to keep open the line 
of communication, and numerous other difficulties over- 
come, before he could penetrate to the vicinity of the 
bend. It was early in the morning of March 27th that, 
with an army diminished by garrisoning the posts to 
two thousand men, he reached the scene and prepared 
to commence operations. 

Perceiving at one glance that the Indians had sim- 
ply penned themselves up for slaughter, his first meas- 
ure was to send General Coffee with all the mounted 
men and friendly Indians to cross the river two miles 



J 12 GENERAL JACKSON. 

below, where it was fordable, to take a position on the 
bank opposite the line of canoes, and so cut off the re- 
treat. This was promptly executed by General Coffee, 
who soon announced by a preconcerted signal that he had 
reached the station assigned him. Jackson then planted 
his two pieces of cannon — one a three, the other a six- 
pounder— upon an eminence eighty yards from the near- 
est point of the breastwork, whence, at half-past ten in 
the morning, he opened fire upon it. His sharpshoot- 
ers also were drawn up near enough to get an occasional 
shot at an Indian within the bend. A steady fire of can- 
non and rifles was kept up in front for two hours with- 
out producing any hopeful beginning of a breach in the 
breastwork. The little cannon balls buried themselves 
in the logs or in the earth between them without doing 
decisive harm. The Indians whooped in derision as 
they struck and disappeared. 

Meanwhile General Coffee, not content to remain in- 
active, hit upon a line of conduct that proved eminently 
effective. He sent some of the best swimmers among 
his force of friendly Indians across the river to cut 
loose and bring away the canoes of the beleaguered 
Creeks. That done, he used the canoes for sending over 
a party of men under Colonel Morgan, with orders first 
to set fire to the cluster of huts at the bottom of the 
bend, and then to rush forward and attack the Indians 
behind the breastwork. 

This was gallantly done. The force under Jackson 
soon perceived from the smoke of the burning huts and 
from the rattling fire behind the breastwork that Gen- 
eral Coffee was up and doing. Soon, however, that fire 
was observed to slacken, and it became apparent that 
Morgan's force was too small to do more than distract 
and divide the attention of the assailed. This, however, 
alone was an immense advantage. Jackson's men saw 



THE FINISHING BLOW. U^ 

it and clamored for the order to assault. The General 
hesitated many minutes before giving an order that 
would inevitably send so many of his brave fellows to 
their account, and the issue of which was doubtful. The 
order came at length, and was received with a general 
shout. 

The Thirty-ninth Regiment, under Colonel Williams, 
and the brigade of East Tennesseeans, under Colonel 
Bunch, marched rapidly up to the breastwork and de- 
livered a volley through the port-holes. The Indians 
returned the fire with effect, and, muzzle to muzzle, the 
combatants for a short time contended. Major L. P. 
Montgomery, of the Thirty-ninth, was the first man to 
spring upon the breastwork, where, calling upon his men 
to follow, he received a ball in his head and fell dead 
to the ground. At that critical moment young Ensign 
Houston mounted the breastwork. A barbed arrow 
pierced his thigh; but, nothing dismayed, this gallant 
youth, calling his comrades to follow, leaped down 
among the Indians and soon cleared a space around him 
with his vigorous right arm. Joined in a moment by 
parties of his own regiment, and by large numbers of the 
East Tennesseeans, the breastwork was soon cleared, 
the Indians retiring before them into the underbrush. 

The wounded ensign sat down within the fortification 
and called a lieutenant of his company to draw the ar- 
row from his thigh. Two vigorous pulls at the barbed 
weapon failed to extract it. In a fury of pain and im- 
patience Houston cried, '' Try again, and if you fail 
this time I will smite you to the earth ! " Exerting all 
his strength the lieutenant drew forth the arrow, tearing 
the flesh fearfully, and causing an effusion of blood that 
compelled the wounded man to hurry over the breast- 
work to get the wound bandaged. While he was lying 
on the ground under the surgeon's hands the general 



114 GENERAL JACKSON. 

rode up, and, recognizing his young acquaintance, or- 
dered him not to cross the breastwork again. Houston 
begged him to recall the order, but the general repeated 
it peremptorily and rode on. In a few minutes the en- 
sign had disobeyed the command and was once more 
with his company in the thick of that long hand-to-hand 
engagement which consumed the hours of the afternoon. 

Not an Indian asked for quarter, nor would accept 
it when offered. From behind trees and logs, from 
clefts in the river's banks, from among the burning huts, 
from chance log-piles, from temporary fortifications, the 
desperate red men fired upon the troops. A large num- 
ber plunged into the river and attempted to escape by 
swimming, but from Coffee's men on one bank and 
Jackson's on the other a hailstorm of bullets flew over 
the stream, and the painted heads dipped beneath its 
blood-stained ripples. The battle became at length a 
slow, laborious massacre. From all parts of the penin- 
sula resounded the yells of the savages, the shouts of 
the assailants, and the reports of the firearms, while the 
gleam of the uplifted tomahawk was seen among the 
branches. 

Toward the close of the afternoon it was observed 
that a considerable number of the Indians had found a 
refuge under the bluffs of the river, where a part of the 
breastwork, the formation of the ground, and the felled 
trees gave them complete protection. Desirous to end 
this horrible carnage, Jackson sent a friendly Indian to 
announce to them that their lives should be spared if 
they would surrender. They were silent for a moment, 
as if in consultation, and then answered the summons 
by a volley which sent the interpreter bleeding from the 
scene. The cannon were now brought up and played 
upon the spot without effect. Jackson then called for 
volunteers to charge, but the Indians were so well posted 



THE FINISHING BLOW. 



MS 



that for a minute no one responded to the call. Ensign 
Houston again emerged into view on this occasion. Or- 
dering his platoon to follow, but not waiting to see if 
they would follow, he rushed to the overhanging bank 
which sheltered the foe and through openings of which 
they were firing. Over this mine of desperate savages 
he paused and looked back for his men. At that mo- 
ment he received two balls in his right shoulder ; his arm 
fell powerless to his side, he staggered out of the fire 
and lay down totally disabled. His share in that day's 
work was done. 

Several valuable lives were afterward lost in vain en- 
deavors to dislodge the enemy from their well-chosen 
covert. As the sun was going down, fire was set to the 
logs and underbrush, which overspread and surrounded 
this last refuge of the Creeks. The place soon grew too 
hot to hold them. Singly, and by twos and threes, they 
ran from the ravine, and fell as they ran before the fire 
of a hundred riflemen on the watch for the starting of 
the game. 

The carnage lasted as long as there was light enough 
to see a skulking or a flying enemy. It was impossible 
to spare. The Indians fought after they were wounded, 
and gave wounds to men who sought to save their lives, 
for they thought that if spared they would be reserved 
only for a more painful death. Night fell at last, and 
recalled the troops from their bloody work to gather 
wounded comrades and minister to their necessities. It 
was a night of horror. Along the banks of the river, 
all around the bend, Indians — the wounded and the un- 
hurt—were crouching in the clefts, under the brushwood, 
and in some instances under the heaps of slain, watch- 
ing for an opportunity to escape. Many did escape, 
and some lay until the morning, fearing to attempt 
it. One noted chief, covered with wounds, took to the 



jl5 GENERAL JACKSON. 

water in the evening and lay beneath the surface, draw- 
ing his breath through a hollow cane until it was dark 
enough to swim across. He escaped, and lived to tell 
hi-^ story and show his scars many years after to the his- 
torian of Alabama, from whom we have derived the in- 
cident. In the morning, parties of the troops again 
scoured the peninsula and ferreted from their hiding- 
places sixteen more warriors, who, refusing still to sur- 
render, were added to the number of the slain. 

Upon counting the dead, five hundred and fifty-seven 
was found to be the number of the fallen enemy within 
the peninsula. Two hundred more, it was computed, 
had found a grave at the bottom of the river. Many 
more died in the woods attempting to escape. Jackson's 
loss was fifty-five killed and one hundred and forty-six 
wounded, of whom more than half were friendly Indians. 
The three prophets of the Creeks, fantastically dressed 
and decorated, were found among the dead. One of 
them, while engaged in his incantations, had received a 
grapeshot in his mouth, which killed him instantly. 

One would have expected General Jackson to pause 
in his operations after such an affair as that of the 
Horseshoe. Nothing was further from his thoughts. 
" In war," his maxim was, *' till everything is done 
nothing is done." On the morning after the battle he 
began at once to prepare for a retrograde movement as 
far as Fort Williams, the fort which he had built on his 
march from Fort Strother. He had brought with him 
into the heart of the wilderness but seven days' pro- 
visions. Before pushing his conquests further, it was 
necessary both to procure supplies and place his long 
train of wounded in a place of safety and comfort. He 
was up betimes, therefore, and passed a busy morning. 
His dead were sunk in the river, to prevent their being 
scalped by the returning savages. Litters were prepared 



THE FINISHING BLOW. ny 

for the wounded. A brief, imperfect account of the 
battle was dispatched to General Pinckney. Before the 
sun was many hours on his course all things were in 
readiness, and the army set out on its return. 

Five days' march brought them to Fort Williams. 
There the wounded were cared for, the friendly Indians 
dismissed, and the troops publicly thanked, praised, and 
congratulated. The praise of the general was the theme 
of every tongue. 

Provisions were not too abundant there in the wilder- 
ness, and supplies were brought in with incredible diffi- 
culty and toil. Jackson's next object was to form a 
junction with the southern army at the confluence of 
the Coosa and Tallapoosa, the holy ground of the 
Creeks, which their prophets told them no white man 
could tread and live. He had been assured by General 
Pinckney that as soon as the junction of the two armies 
was effected all difficulty with regard to provisions would 
be at an end, as superabundant supplies had been pro- 
vided by the General Government. Moreover, it was on 
this holy ground that the only body of Creeks that still 
maintained a hostile attitude were assembled. For five 
days the troops rested from their labors at Fort Williams ; 
then they set out on their march through the pathless 
wilderness, leaving behind wagons and baggage, each 
man carrying eight days' provisions upon his back. 
Floods of rain, converting swamps into lakes, rivulets 
into rivers, creeks into torrents, retarded their progress, 
and gave the Indians time to disperse. The latter days 
of April, however, found the troops on the holy ground, 
where a junction with part of the southern army was 
effected. 

But the war was over. The power of the Creeks was 
broken ; half their warriors were dead, the rest were 
scattered and subdued in spirit. Fort Mims was indeed 
9 



Il8 GENERAL JACKSON. 

avenged. Jackson's amazing celerity of movement, and 
particularly his last daring plunge into the wilderness, 
and his triumph over obstacles that would have deterred 
even an Indian force, quite baffled and confounded the 
unhappy Creeks. Against such a man they felt it vain 
to contend. The general had no sooner reached the 
holy ground and procured for his tired and hungry men 
the supplies they needed, than the chiefs began to come 
into his camp and supplicate for peace. His reply to 
them was brief and stern. They must give proof, he 
said, of their submission, by returning to the north of 
his advanced post — Fort Williams. There they would 
be treated with, and the demands of the Government 
made known to them. 

In a few days fourteen of the leading chiefs had 
given in their submission and taken up their sorrowful 
march toward the designated place. Those of the fallen 
tribe who despaired of making terms, and those whose 
spirit was not yet completely crushed, fled into Florida, 
and there sowed the seed of future wars. 

With the establishment of Fort Jackson in the holy 
ground, at the confluence of the two rivers. General 
Jackson's task was nearly done. For a few days he was 
busy enough in receiving deputations of repentant and 
crestfallen chiefs, and in sending out strong detach- 
ments of troops to scour the country in search of hostile 
parties, if any such still kept the field. No hostile parties 
were found. The friendly Creeks, however, gave some 
trouble by their excess of zeal. Attributing the calam- 
ities brought upon their tribe to the massacre at Fort 
Mims, they were bent upon putting to death every man 
that had taken part in that scene of horrors. Bodies 
and single individuals of the hostile portion of the tribe 
were waylaid and killed by roving companies of their 
own countrymen. A war of extermination would have 



THE FINISHING BLOW. ng 

ensued, had not General Jackson, in his decisive manner, 
announced that any of the friendly party who should 
molest a Red Stick after he had surrendered and while 
he was obeying the orders of the general, should be 
treated as enemies of the United States. This stayed 
the work of blood, and the Indians continued to repair 
to the northern part of Alabama, which had been assigned 
for their temporary residence. Fort Jackson completed 
the line of posts which separated them from the hos- 
tile Indians, the hostile British, and the sympathizing 
Spaniards of Florida. 

In the beginning of May, 1814, a few days after the 
news of the battle of the Horseshoe reached Wash- 
ington, a brigadier-generalship fell vacant, which the 
President was induced to offer to General Jackson. 
Before it was known whether the offer would be ac- 
cepted, the unhappy misunderstanding between the Sec- 
retary of War and General William Henry Harrison 
resulted in the resignation of that brave officer and 
honest gentleman. Whether it was the haste of the Sec- 
retary to shelve an officer disagreeable to him, or the 
growing /c/af of Jackson's victories, or both of these 
causes together, that induced the Government to accept 
the resignation and offer the vacancy to Jackson, is a 
matter of no importance now. Jackson received the 
offer of the brigadiership ; and while he was consider- 
ing the question of acceptance or rejection, the mail of 
the day following brought him the second offer, which 
he accepted promptly and gladly. It was a reward which 
he desired and felt to be due to his standing and services. 
The National Intelligencer of May 31, 1814, contained 
the announcement in the usual form : 

" Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, is appointed major- 
general in the army of the United States, vice William 
Henry Harrison, resigned." 



I20 GENERAL JACKSON. 

The emoluments of his new rank were of importance 
to General Jackson, for he was by no means a rich man 
in 1814. The pay of a major-general in the army of the 
United States was twenty-four hundred dollars a year, 
with allowances for rations, forage, servants, and trans- 
portation, that swelled the income to an average of 
about six thousand five hundred dollars. It was never 
less than six thousand dollars. The Legislature of Mis- 
sissippi Territory, about the same time, voted General 
Jackson a sword, which was the first of the many simi- 
lar gifts bestowed upon him during his military career. 

It is worthy of remark, in view of succeeding events, 
that no less than six generals had stood between Jackson 
and the likelihood of his being intrusted with the de- 
fense of the Southwest. First, General Wilkinson was 
transferred from New Orleans to the Northwest, where 
his failure was signal. Next, Brigadier-General Hamp- 
ton resigned. Third, Major-General William Henry 
Harrison resigned. Fourth, General Flourney, who suc- 
ceeded Wilkinson at New Orleans, resigned. Fifth, Gen- 
eral Howard, of Kentucky, who was dispatched to suc- 
ceed Flourney, died before reaching his post. Sixth, 
General Gaines, sent from Washington in haste when 
the first alarm for New Orleans was felt by the Adminis- 
tration, did not arrive till all was over. And all these 
singular and unexpected changes occurred within the 
space of a very few months. 

The effects of Jackson's eight months' service upon 
his health were permanently injurious. In reading of 
his exploits we figure to ourselves a man in the enjoy- 
ment of the full tide of health. How different was the 
fact! From the moment of his being wounded in the 
affray with the Bentons to the close of the war he was 
so much an invalid that a man of less strength of will 
would probably have yielded to the disease and spent 



THE FINISHING BLOW. 12 1 

his days in nursing it. Chronic diarrhoea was the form 
which his complaint assumed. The sHghtest imprudence 
in eating or drinking brought on an attack, during 
which he suffered intensely. While the paroxysm lasted 
he could obtain relief only by sitting on a chair with his 
chest against the back of it and his arms dangling for- 
ward. In this position he was sometimes compelled to 
remain for hours. It often happened that he was seized 
with the familiar pain while on the march through the 
woods at the head of the troops. In the absence of 
other means of relief he would have a sapling half sev- 
ered and bent over, upon which he would hang with his 
arms downward till the agony subsided. The only 
medicine that he took, and his only beverage then, was 
weak gin and water. The reader is therefore to banish 
from his imagination the popular figure of a vigorous 
warrior galloping in the pride of his strength upon a 
fiery charger, and put in the place of it a slight, attenu- 
ated form, a yellowish, wrinkled face, the dark-blue eyes 
of which were the only feature that told anything of the 
power and quality of the man. In great emergencies, it 
is true, his will was master, compelling his impaired body 
to execute all its resolves. But the reaction was terrible 
sometimes, days of agony and prostration following an 
hour of anxiety or exertion. He gradually learned in 
some degree to manage and control his disease. But 
all through the Creek war and the New Orleans cam- 
paign he was an acute sufferer, more fit for a sick-cham- 
ber than for the forest bivouac or the field of battle. 
There were times, and critical times, too, when it seemed 
impossible that he could go on. But at the decisive 
moment he always rallied, and would do what the de- 
cisive moment demanded. 

General Jackson rested from his labors three weeks. 
As soon as his acceptance of the major-generalship 



122 GENERAL JACKSON. 

reached Washington he was ordered to take command 
of the Southern Division of the army, if division it could 
be called, "vyhich consisted of three half-filled regiments. 
He was ordered to halt, on his way to the Southern 
coast, long enough to form a definite treaty with the 
Creeks, or rather to announce to them the terms upon 
which the United States would consent to a permanent 
peace. Colonel Hawkins, who had been the agent for 
the Creeks since the days of General Washington, was 
associated with the general in this business. On the 
loth of July, General Jackson, with a small retinue, 
reached the holy ground once more, the place appointed 
for meeting the chiefs, where he assumed the command 
of the troops and prepared to begin the negotiation. 

The instructions from the Secretary of War set forth 
that terms were to be dictated to the Creeks as to a 
conquered people. The commissioners were to demand, 
first, an indemnification for the expenses incurred by 
the United States in the prosecution of the war, by such 
a cession of land as might be deemed an equivalent ; 
secondly, a stipulation on the part of the Creeks that 
they would cease all intercourse with any Spanish garri- 
son or town, and not admit among them any agent or 
trader who did not derive his authority or license from 
the United States ; thirdly, an acknowledgment of the 
right of the United States to open roads through the 
Creek territory, and to establish such military posts and 
trading-houses as might be necessary and proper ; and, 
lastly, the surrender of the prophets and instigators of 
the war. 

An outline of a treaty in accordance with these prin- 
ciples was promptly submitted by the commissioners to 
the council of chiefs; an engagement being added that, 
in consideration of the destitute condition of the tribe, 
supplies would b§ furnished by the United States until 



THE FINISHING BLOW. 1 23 

the maturity of the next crop. After a delay of a whole 
month in negotiation the treaty was signed by the chiefs 
and the commissioners, and General Jackson, accompa- 
nied by his staff and a few troops, directed his steps 
toward Mobile. Rumors of the great British expedi- 
tion against New Orleans already alarmed the South- 
ern country. British troops, indeed, were already in 
Florida. 



CHAPTER XI. 

MOBILE DEFENDED, AND THE ENGLISH DRIVEN FROM 
PENSACOLA. 

It may have surprised the reader that a commander 
SO remarkable for celerity of movement as General Jack- 
son should have lingered a whole month at the junction 
of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, concluding a treaty with 
the Creeks. .But that was by no means his principal 
employment there, as shall now be shown. 

All that summer he had had a watchful and fre- 
quently a wrathful eye on Florida. That the flying 
Creeks should have been afforded a refuge in that prov- 
ince first moved him to anger, for it was the nature of 
Andrew Jackson to finish whatever he undertook. He 
went, as Colonel Benton often remarked, for " a clean 
victory or a clean defeat." As long as there was any- 
where on earth one Creek maintaining an attitude of hos- 
tility against the United States, he felt his work incom- 
plete, and regarded any man or Governor as an enemy 
who gave that solitary warrior aid and comfort. Being 
a man with less of the spirit of the circumlocution office 
in him than any other individual then extant — a man, in 
fact, with not a shred of red tape in his composition — the 
impulse of his mind was to march straight into the heart 
of Florida and extinguish the hostile remnant of the 
Creeks without more ado. That, however, was a meas- 
ure of which he was not yet ready to assume the whole 
responsibility. 



MOBILE DEFENDED. I25 

While on his way from the Hermitage to Fort Jack- 
son, a rumor reached his ears that a British vessel was 
at Appalachicola landing arms for distribution among 
the Indians. His first act, therefore, on arriving at the 
treaty ground, was to select, by the aid of Colonel Haw- 
kins, some trustworthy Indians to send to Appalachicola 
to ascertain what was going on there. Before they re- 
turned, a piece of very tangible evidence of the truth of 
the rumor reached him in the form of a new musket of 
English manufacture, which had been given to a Creek 
of the peace party by a friend of his at Appalachicola 
only a week before. We can imagine the feelings and the 
manner of Jackson as he handled, examined, and des- 
canted upon this shining weapon. The owner of the 
musket, upon being questioned, stated that a party of 
British troops was at Appalachicola, giving out arms 
and ammunition to all the hostile Indians that applied 
for them. 

In fifteen days the friendly Indians returned to Fort 
Jackson, confirming the testimony of the new musket and 
its proprietor. Soon came rumors that a large force of 
British were expected at Pensacola, and at length posi- 
tive information of the landing of Colonel Nichols, of 
the welcome he had received from the Spanish governor, 
and of his extraordinary proceedings. 

" Florida must be ours," was thenceforth the burden 
of General Jackson's secret thoughts, communicated 
only to two or three of his most confidential officers. 
" Florida must be ours," was the burden of his letters 
to the Secretary of War. " If the hostile Creeks," he 
wrote to the Secretary, '* have taken refuge in Florida, 
and are there fed, clothed, and protected ; if the British 
have landed a large force, munitions of war, and are 
fortifying and stirring up the savages, will you only say 
to me, * Raise a few hundred militia, which can be quickly 



126 GENERAL JACKSON. 

done, and, with such regular force as can be conveniently 
collected, make a descent upon Pensacola and reduce 
it ? ' If so, I promise you the war in the South shall have 
a speedy termination, and English influence be forever 
destroyed with the savages in this quarter." 

The answer of Secretary Armstrong to this letter — 
whether from accident or design will never be known — 
was six months on its way from Washington to the hands 
of General Jackson. It reached him at New Orleans 
when the campaign and the war were over. It gave him 
all the authority he desired. 

"If this letter," he would say in after-years, "or any 
hint that such a course would have been even winked at 
by the Government, had' been received, it would have 
been in my power to have captured the British shipping 
in the bay. I would have marched at once against Bar- 
rancas and carried it, and thus prevented any escape. 
But, acting on my own responsibility against a neutral 
power, it became essential for me to proceed with more 
caution than my judgment or wishes approved, and con- 
sequently important advantages were lost which might 
have been secured." 

Colonel Nichols, taking no precautions whatever to 
conceal his designs, but rather courting publicity. Gen- 
eral Jackson was kept well informed of what was tran- 
spiring in Florida. Early in September it was noised 
about in Pensacola, and soon reported to General Jack- 
son, that Colonel Nichols had hostile designs upon Mo- 
bile. The general's mind from that moment was made 
up. He would dally no longer with a Secretary of War 
two months distant ; he would take the responsibility ; 
he would fight the Southern campaign himself as best he 
could, orders or no orders. Already he had written to 
the Governors of Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi, 
urging them to complete the organization of their militia, 



MOBILE DEFENDED. 



127 



" for," said he, " there is no telling when or where the 
spoiler may come." " Dark and heavy clouds," he said 
in another letter, *' hover around us. The energy and 
patriotism of the citizens of your States must dispel 
them. Our rights, our liberties, and free Constitution 
are threatened. This noble patrimony of our fathers 
must be defended with the best blood of our country ; 
to do this, you must hasten to carry into effect the 
requisition of the Secretary of War, and call forth your 
troops without delay." 

On the 9th of September, Colonel Butler, Jackson's 
adjutant-general, who had been sent to Tennessee to 
hasten the organization of the new levies in that State, 
received the welcome order from Jackson to call out the 
troops and march them with all dispatch southward 
toward Mobile. The call was obeyed with even greater 
alacrity than that of the last year, when the massacre of 
Fort Mims was to be avenged. General Coffee was 
promptly in the field once more. Such was the eager- 
ness of the Tennesseeans to share a campaign with 
General Jackson, that considerable sums, ranging from 
thirty to eighty dollars, were paid for the privilege of 
being substitutes for those who could not go. On the 
appointed day two thousand men appeared at the ren- 
dezvous, well armed and equipped, ready to march with 
General Coffee, four hundred miles, to the scene of ex- 
pected combat. At the same time a small body of re- 
cruits for the regular army set out from Nashville 
toward Mobile. Colonel Butler, as soon as he had 
completed his business in Tennessee, hurried forward 
to conduct to the same place the forces stationed at the 
posts which had been established during the late Creek 
war. 

Mobile was an insignificant village of a hundred and 
fifty houses when Jackson arrived there to defend it. 



J28 GENERAL JACKSON. 

in the latter part of August, 1814. Like Pensacola, it 
derived whatever importance it had from the bay at 
the head of which it was situated, and the great river 
system of which that bay is the outlet. 

When General Jackson reached Mobile he found it 
little better prepared for defense against any but an In- 
dian foe than if war were unknown to the civilized part 
of mankind. There were some blockhouses and stock- 
ades in the town, but no structure that could resist 
artillery. Nor, indeed, was there need of any, for the 
place was to be defended or lost at Mobile Point, thirty 
miles down the bay. If Colonel Nichols and Captain 
Percy had touched at the Point on their way to Pensa- 
cola and landed two hundred men there, they would 
have given General Jackson much more trouble than 
they did. There was nothing to hinder their doing so 
at the time. 

To Mobile Point Jackson repaired soon after his ar- 
rival at Mobile. There he found the remains of the 
fortification, then called Fort Bowyer, though the name 
has since been changed to Fort Morgan. Incomplete, 
and yet falling into ruin, without a bomb-proof, and 
mounting but two twenty-four pounders, six twelves, 
and twelve smaller pieces, it was plain that Fort Bowyer 
was Mobile's chance of safety. It had been untenanted 
for a year or more, and contained nothing of the means 
of defense except cannons and cannon-balls. For the 
information of unprofessional readers, it is enough to 
say that the fort was a semicircular structure, with such 
additional outworks as were necessary to enable it to 
command the all-important channel, the peninsula, and 
the open sea. It was surrounded by a ditch twenty feet 
wide. Its weak point was similar to that by which Fort 
Ticonderoga was once taken — it was overlooked by 
some tall hillocks of sand within cannon range. 



MOBILE DEFENDED. 



129 



Into this fort General Jackson, with all haste, threw 
a garrison of one hundred and sixty men, commanded 
by Major Lawrence, of the Second Regiment of United 
States Infantry, as gallant a spirit as ever stood to his 
country's defense. A large proportion of the little gar- 
rison were totally ignorant of gunnery, and had to learn 
the art by practicing it in fighting the enemy. The first 
twelve days in September were employed by them in 
repairing the essential parts of the fortification, while 
General Jackson was busy on shore dispatching provis- 
ions and ammunition, and counting over and over again 
the days that must elapse before he could reasonably 
expect the arrival of re-enforcements. 

No signs of an enemy appeared until the morning of 
the 12th of September, when an out-sentinel came run- 
ning in with the report that a body of British marines 
and Indians had landed on the peninsula, within a few 
miles of the fort. Colonel Nichols, it afterward ap- 
peared, was the commander of this detachment, which 
consisted, according to American writers, of one hun- 
dred and thirty marines and six hundred Indians ; ac- 
cording to James, the English historian, of sixty marines 
and one hundred and twenty Indians. Captain Wood- 
bine commanded the Indian part of this force. Toward 
evening of the same day four British vessels of war hove 
in sight and came to anchor near the coast, six miles 
from the Point. These proved to be the Hermes, Cap- 
tain Percy, twenty-two guns ; the Sophia, in command 
of Captain Lockyer, eighteen guns ; the Carron, twenty 
guns; and the Childers, eighteen guns — the whole under 
the command of Captain Percy. 

Night fell upon the fleet, the land force, and the anx- 
ious garrison, without any movement having been at- 
tempted on either side. The garrison slept upon their 
arms, every man at his post. 



130 GENERAL JACKSON. 

The next day a reconnoitering party approached 
within three quarters of a mile and then retired. A little 
after noon Colonel Nichols drew a howitzer, the only one 
he had with him, behind a mound seven hundred yards 
from the fort. He fired three shells and a cannon-ball, 
which splintered a piece of timber that crowned part of 
the rampart, but did no other damage. The garrison, 
without being able to see the enemy, fired a few shots 
in the direction of the mound. Under cover of other 
sand-hills Nichols then withdrew his party to a point a 
mile and a half distant, where he appeared to be throw- 
ing up a breastwork. Three well-aimed shots from the 
fort again dispersed the party and drove them beyond 
range, within which they did not return that day. Later 
in the afternoon several small boats put off from the 
ships, and attempted to sound the channel near Mobile 
Point. A few discharges of ball and grape drove them 
off also, and they returned to the ships. Night again 
closed in upon the scene, and the garrison again went 
to sleep upon their arms, encouraged and confident. 

On the following mornings as soon as it was light 
enough to discern distant objects, the enemy was seen at 
the same place, still engaged, as it seemed, in throwing 
up works, the ships remaining at their former anchorage. 
As the morning wore away without any further move- 
ment, Major Lawrence, concluding that the enemy de- 
signed to take the fort by regular approaches, thought 
it most prudent to send an express to General Jackson, 
informing him of the enemy's arrival and asking a re-en- 
forcement. It so chanced that Jackson had set out on 
that very morning to visit the fort, and had sailed to 
within a few miles of it when he met the boat bearing 
Major Lawrence's message. Back to Mobile he hurried, 
his bargemen straining every nerve. He reached the 
town late at night, where he instantly mustered a body 



MOBILE DEFENDED. I^j 

of eighty men, under the command of Captain Laval, 
hurried them on board a small brig, and saw them off 
toward Mobile Point before he left the shore. At the 
fort the whole day passed in inaction. Night came on 
apace, and once more the beleaguered garrison lay upon 
their arms, wondering what the morrow would hvino; 
forth. ^ 

Day dawned upon the 15th of September. Straining 
eyes from the summit of the fort sought to penetrate 
the morning mist. Gradually the low, dark line of the 
enemy's bivouac, and then the dim outline of the more 
distant ships, became visible. There they were, un- 
changed from the day before. Are we to have another 
day, then, of puzzle and inactivity? As the morning 
cleared it was observed that there was an unwonted stir 
and movement among the enemy. There was a march- 
ing hither and thither upon the peninsula ; boats were 
passing and repassing between the shore and the ships; 
and all those nameless indications were noticed which 
announce that something absorbing and decisive is on 
foot. There is a magnetism in the very air on such oc- 
casions which conveys an intimation of coming events 
to the high-strained nerves of belligerent men. Still, 
hour after hour passed on, and the ships lay at an- 
chor, and the busy troops upon the shore made no 
advance. 

An hour before noon the wind, which had been fresh, 
fell to a light breeze, favorable for a movement of the 
squadron. The ships now weighed anchor and stood 
out to sea; the little garrison looking out over the ram- 
parts and through the portholes. For nearly three 
hours the ships beat up against the light wind, away 
from the fort, till they were hull down in the blue gulf. 
Have they given it up, then, without a trial ? At two 
o'clock in the afternoon they were observed to tack, get 



132 GENERAL JACKSON. 

before the wind, and bear down toward the fort in line 
of battle, the Hermes leading. The suspense was over. 
They were going to attack ! 

Then Major Lawrence, in the true spirit of a clas- 
sical hero, called his officers together to concert the 
requisite measures. " Don't give up the Fort ! " was 
adopted as the signal for the day, and it did but express 
the unanimous feeling of the garrison. The officers, 
while agreeing to defend the fort as long as it was tena- 
ble, defined also the terms upon which alone the sur- 
vivors should surrender. These were the words of their 
resolution, deliberately concluded upon while the fleet 
was approaching, and the force on the peninsula was 
preparing for simultaneous attack : 

" That in case of being, by imperious necessity, com- 
pelled to surrender (which could only happen in the last 
extremity, on the ramparts being entirely battered down 
and the garrison almost wholly destroyed, so that any 
further resistance would be evidently useless), no capit- 
ulation should be agreed on unless it had for its funda- 
mental article that the officers and privates should retain 
their arms and their private property, and that on no 
pretext should the Indians be suffered to commit any 
outrage on their persons or property; and unless full 
assurance were given them that they would be treated 
as prisoners of war, according to the custom established 
among civilized nations." 

The officers ratified this resolution by an oath, each 
man solemnly swearing to abide by it in any and every 
extremity. Now, every man to his post, and don't give 
up the fort ! 

At four o'clock the Hermes came within reach of the 
fort's great guns. A few shots were exchanged with 
little effect. One by one the other vess' Is came up and 
gave the garrison some practice at long range, but no 



MOBILE DEFENDED. 1 33 

great harm was done them. At half past four, Captain 
Percy, like the gallant sailor that he was, ran the Hermes 
right into the narrow channel that leads into the bay, 
dropped anchor within musket shot of the fort, and 
turned his broadside to its guns. The other vessels fol- 
lowed his brave example, and anchored in the channel 
one behind the other, all within reach of the long guns 
of the fort, though considerably more distant from them 
than the Hermes. 

Then arose a thundering cannonade. Broadside 
after broadside from the ships ; the fort replying by a 
steady, quick fire, that was better and better directed as 
the fight went on. Meanwhile Captain Woodbine, from 
behind a bluff in the shore, opened fire from his how- 
itzer ; but a few shots from the fort's south battery 
silenced him, and compelled him for a time to keep his 
distance. 

For an hour the firing continued on both sides with- 
out a moment's pause, the fleet and the fort enveloped 
in huge volumes of smoke, lighted up by the incessant 
flash of the guns. At half past five the halyards of the 
Hermes's flag were severed by a shot, and the flag fell 
into the fire and smoke below. Major Lawrence, think- 
ing it possible the ship might have surrendered, ceased 
his fire. A silence of five minutes succeeded, at the 
expiration of which a new flag fluttered up to the mast- 
head of the commodore's ship, and the Sophia, that lay 
next her, renewed the strife by firing a whole broadside 
at once. In the interval every gun in the fort had been 
loaded, and the broadside was returned with a salvo that 
shook the earth. A most furious firing succeeded, and 
continued for some time longer without any important 
mishap occurri^ig on either side. 

At length a shot from the fort — a lucky shot indeed 
for the little garrison — cut the cable of the Hermes. 
10 



J 34 GENERAL JACKSON. 

The current of the channel in which she lay caught her 
heavy stern and turned her bow-foremost to the fort, 
where she lay for twenty minutes, raked from bow to 
stern by a terrible fire. At this time it was that the 
flag-staff of the fort was shot away. The ships, it is to 
be presumed, either because they did not perceive the ab- 
sence of the flag, or because they knew the cause of its 
absence, redoubled their firing at the moment ; while 
Captain Woodbine and his whooping savages, supposing 
the fort had surrendered, ran up to seize their prey. A 
few discharges of grape drove the Indians howling back 
behind the hillocks out of sight, and another flag, fast- 
ened hastily to a sponging-rod, was raised above the 
ramparts. 

The Hermes, totally unmanageable, her decks swept 
of every man and everything, drifted slowly along with 
the current for half a mile and then ran aground. Still 
exposed to the fire, and damaged in every part by the 
hail of shot she had received, it was impossible either to 
save or fight her. Captain Percy therefore got out his 
wounded men, transferred them to the Sophia, set his 
ship on fire, and abandoned her to her fate. Then the 
Sophia, which was also severely crippled, contrived with 
difiiculty to get out of range. The two other vessels, 
which were not seriously harmed, hoisted sail and de- 
parted to their old anchorage off the coast. The fort 
guns continued to play upon the Hermes till dark, 
when the fire burst through her hatches and lighted 
up the scene with more than the brilliancy of day. 
At eleven o'clock she blew up, with an explosion that 
was heard by General Jackson at Mobile, thirty miles 
distant. 

When the next day dawned, Nichols, Woodbine, ma- 
rines and Indians, had vanished from the peninsula. 
The three vessels were still in sight, but early in the 



MOBILE DEFENDED. 



135 



afternoon they weighed anchor, stood to sea, and were 
seen no more. 

Then the heroic little garrison came forth exulting 
from their battered walls, surveyed the scene of the late 
encounter, and reckoned up their victory. Four of their 
number lay dead within the fort ; four others were 
wounded in the battle ; six men had been injured by 
the bursting of some cartridges. Both of the great 
twenty-four pounders were cracked beyond using. Two 
guns had been knocked off their carriages ; one had 
burst; one had been broken short off by a thirty-two- 
pound ball. The walls of the fort showed the holes and 
marks of three hundred balls, and the ground about the 
fort was plowed into ridges. Though but twelve pieces 
had been brought to bear upon the fleet, the stock of 
cannon-balls had been diminished by seven hundred. 
The wreck of the gallant Hermes lay near by, her guns 
visible in the clear water of the channel. 

The garrison was ignorant, as yet, of the name, the 
force, and the loss of the enemy. They knew not 
whence they had come, whither they were gone, nor how 
soon they might return in greater numbers to renew the 
attack. In the course of the day, two marines, deserters 
from the party under Colonel Nichols, came in and gave 
the garrison all the information they desired. They re- 
ported the British loss at one hundred and sixty-two 
killed and seventy wounded. This was an exaggeration. 
The real loss of the English, as officially given by them- 
selves, was thirty-two killed and forty wounded. Among 
the wounded was Colonel Nichols himself, who lost an 
eye in one of his reconnoiterings. The deserters stated 
that the ships had returned to Pensacola, leaving the 
marines and Indians to march back to the same place 
as best they could. 

After the defense of Fort Bowyer, General Jackson 



136 GENERAL JACKSON. 

had to endure six weeks of most intolerable waiting. 
Nothing could be done before the arrival of the troops 
from Tennessee. To the tedium of delay was added a 
torturing uncertainty with regard to the nature, the ex- 
tent, and the proximity of the impending danger. If a 
powerful expedition should arrive, which rumor with a 
thousand tongues foretold, to which so many probabili- 
ties pointed. New Orleans was open to its approach, and 
Fort Bowyer, with its battered ramparts and cracked 
guns, could make but a poor and brief resistance. It is 
not surprising that during these weeks the chronic mal- 
ady under which the general suffered should have given 
him many a pang, and frequently laid him prostrate for 
many successive hours. His attenuated form and yel- 
low, haggard face struck every one w4th surprise who 
saw him then for the first time. 

On the 25th of November came at length an ex- 
press from General Coffee, announcing his arrival on 
the Mobile River with an army of twenty-eight hun- 
dred men. The next day Jackson joined him and took 
the command. Including the troops led by General 
Coffee, the garrison of Mobile, a body of mounted 
Mississippians, and a small number of Creek Indians, 
General Jackson found himself, by the ist of November, 
in command of an army of four thousand men, of whom 
perhaps one thousand were troops of the regular serv- 
ice. A large proportion of the volunteers, not less 
than fifteen hundred, were mounted. It is mentioned, as 
a signal proof of their zeal in the service, that they 
willingly left their horses to pasture on the Mobile 
River, and served as infantry during the subsequent 
operations, forage being scarce on the way they were 
next to go. 

General Jackson had resolved, without waiting for 
any further development of the enemy's plans, to " rout 



MOBILE DEFENDED. 



137 



the English out of Pensacola," as he was wont to ex- 
press it. The press and the people of the Southern 
States had been clamoring for this with increasing vehe- 
mence and unanimity ever since they had heard of the 
landing of Colonel Nichols. Jackson was nothing loath. 
In the whole range of military enterprise no expedition 
could have been suggested which he would have under- 
taken with so keen a zest as a march upon Pensacola. 
The treasure-chest being empty, Jackson was compelled 
to purchase supplies partly with money of his own and 
partly on the credit of the Government. On the 3d of 
November, rations for eight days having been distrib- 
uted, he marched, with three thousand men, unencum- 
bered with baggage, toward Pensacola, and halted, on 
the evening of the 6th, within a mile and a half of the 
place. 

Not less prudent than impetuous on great occa- 
sions, Jackson immediately sent forward Major Piere, 
of the Forty-fourth Infantry, with a flag, to confer 
with Governor Maurequez. He was ordered to give 
a friendly and candid explanation of the object of Gen- 
eral Jackson ; which was, not to make war upon a neu- 
tral power, nor to injure the town, nor needlessly to 
alarm the subjects of the Spanish king, but merely to 
deprive the enemies of the United States of a refuge and 
basis of offensive operations. Major Piere was also to 
demand the immediate surrender of the forts, which 
General Jackson pledged himself to hold only in trust, 
and to restore uninjured as soon as the present peril of 
the Gulf ports was passed. 

As the major approached Fort St. Michael, bearing 
the flag of truce, he was fired upon ; upon which he re- 
tired and reported the fact to the general. Jackson 
then rode forward, and discovered, upon inspecting the 
fort, that it was garrisoned both by British and Spanish 



138 GENERAL JACKSON. 

troops, though only the Spanish ensign now floated from 
the flagstaff. Ordering the troops to bivouac for the 
night, he resolved on the following day to storm the 
town. Upon reflecting, however, that the firing upon 
the flag was probably the work of the English part of 
the garrison, he made another attempt in the course of 
the evening to reach the Governor and bring him to 
terms. A Spanish corporal had been taken on the 
march, to whom Jackson now intrusted a message to 
the Governor, asking an explanation of the insult to 
the flag. Late in the evening the corporal returned 
with a verbal communication from the Governor, to the 
effect that he was powerless in the hands of the British, 
who alone had been concerned in firing upon the flag 
of truce, and that he would gladly receive any over- 
tures the American general might be pleased to make. 
Jackson, rejoicing in the prospect of a bloodless and 
speedy success, at once dispatched Major Piere again to 
the town, who was soon in the Governor's presence 
performing his mission. Jackson had hastily written a 
letter to Maurequez, summing up his demands and pur- 
poses in his brief, decisive way. " I come," said he, 
" not as the enemy of Spain ; not to make war, but to 
ask for peace ; to demand security for my country, and 
that respect to which she is entitled and must receive. 
My force is sufficient, and my determination taken, to 
prevent a future repetition of the injuries she has re- 
ceived. I demand, therefore, the possession of the Bar- 
rancas, and other fortifications, with all your munitions 
of war. If delivered peaceably, the whole will be re- 
ceipted for and become the subject of future arrange- 
ment by our respective governments ; while the prop- 
erty, laws, and religion of your citizens shall be re- 
spected. But if taken by an appeal to arms, let the 
blood of your subjects be upon your own head ! I will 



MOBILE DEFENDED. 1 39 

not hold myself responsible for the conduct of my en- 
raged soldiers. One hour is given you for deliberation, 
when your determination must be had." 

The Governor left Major Piere alone and consulted 
with his officers. He returned after a short absence, 
and said, apparently with reluctance — for the man was 
in a sore strait between two — and cared only for the 
preservation of his town — that the terms proposed by 
General Jackson could not be acceded to. In the small 
hours of the morning Major Piere returned to the gen- 
eral and reported the Governor's answer. 

" Turn out the troops ! " was Jackson's sole commen- 
tary upon the events of the night. 

An hour before daylight the men were under arms 
and ready to advance. They had slept upon the main 
road leading into the town, a road commanded by Fort 
St. Michael, and exposed to the full force of a cannon- 
ade of seven British men-of-war that lay at anchor in 
the harbor. But let the general himself state the events 
of the morning : 

"On the morning of the 7th," he wrote to Governor 
Blount a few days after, " I marched with the effective 
regulars of the Third, Thirty-ninth, and Fourth Infantry, 
part of General Coffee's brigade, the Mississippi dra- 
goons, and part of the West Tennessee regiment, com- 
manded by Lieutenant-Colonel Hammonds (Colonel 
Lowry having deserted and gone home), and part of 
the Choctaws, led by Major Blue, of the Thirty-ninth, 
and Major Kennedy, of Mississippi Territory. Being 
encamped on the west of the town, I calculated they 
would expect the assault from that quarter, and be 
prepared to rake me from the fort, and the British 
armed vessels, seven in number, that lay in the bay. 
To cherish this idea, I sent out part of the mounted 
men to show themselves on the west, while I passed 



I40 GENERAL JACKSON. 

in rear of the fort, undiscovered, to the east of the 
town. When I appeared within a mile, I was in full 
view. My pride was never more heightened than in 
viewing the uniform firmness of my troops, and with 
what undaunted courage they advanced, with a strong 
fort ready to assail them on the right, seven armed 
vessels on the left, strong blockhouses and batteries 
of cannon in their front ; but they still advanced with 
unshaken firmness, and entered the town, when a bat- 
tery of two cannon was opened upon the center column, 
composed of regulars, with ball and grape, and a shower 
of musketry from the houses and gardens. The battery 
was immediately stormed by Captain Laval and his com- 
pany, and carried, and the musketry was soon silenced 
by the steady and well-directed fire of the regulars." 

In storming the battery, Captain Laval fell severely 
wounded, but the troops pressed forward into the town 
and took a second battery before the party posted in it 
could more than three times reload. There was still 
some firing from behind houses and garden walls, when 
the Governor, in utter consternation, ran out into the 
streets bearing a white flag to find the general. He 
came up first with Colonel Williamson and Colonel 
Smith, commanding the dismounted troops, to whom he 
addressed himself with faltering speech, entreating 
them to spare the town, and promising to consent to 
whatever terms the general in command might propose. 
Jackson, who had halted for a moment at the spot where 
Captain Laval had fallen, soon rode up, and, hearing 
what had occurred, proceeded to the Governor's house, 
where he received in person the assurance that all the 
forts should be instantly surrendered. 

Hostilities ceased. Owing to what General Jackson 
styled " Spanish treachery," but probably to the confu- 
sion and bewilderment that prevailed, and the con- 



MOBILE DEFENDED. 



141 



sequent misunderstanding of orders, or perhaps to the 
irresolution of the Governor and his desire to stand ex- 
cused in the eyes of his English friends, the forts were 
not instantly surrendered. More than once in the course 
of the day, Jackson, exasperated at the delay, was about 
t© open fire upon them ; but one by one the forts were 
given up, and late in the evening the town was fully his 
own — the town, but not the port which was far more 
important. Fort Barrancas, six miles distant, which 
commanded the mouth of the harbor, was in the hands 
of the English, and gave complete protection to their 
fleet. Maurequez had given a written order for its sur- 
render, addressed to the nominal commandant, and 
Jackson was prepared to march, with the dawn of the 
next day, to receive it if the order were obeyed ; to carry 
it by storm if it were not. 

He was still in hopes that by the prompt seizure 
of Fort Barrancas he could catch the British fleet as 
in a trap, and either force it to surrender, or do it 
terrible damage if it should attempt to escape. But 
before the dawn of day a tremendous explosion was 
heard in the direction of the mouth of the harbor ; 
then another explosion, not so loud ; and, a few sec- 
onds later, a third. There was little doubt what had 
occurred. Early in the morning a party that was sent 
out to reconnoiter returned with the intelligence that 
Fort Barrancas was a heap of ruins, and that the British 
vessels had disappeared from the bay. Colonel Nichols, 
Captain Woodbine, the garrison, and some hundreds of 
friendly Indians had gone off with the ships, leaving 
their friend Maurequez to settle with the American 
general as best he could. 

The sudden departure of the British fleet was not 
less alarming than disappointing to the general. Whither 
had they gone ? The most probable supposition was 



142 GENERAL JACKSON. 

that they were hastening away to attack Fort Bowyer 
and capture Mobile in the absence of the troops. To 
retain Pensacola, in the circumstances, was equally need- 
less and impossible. Sending off a dispatch to warn 
the garrison of Fort Bowyer of their danger, the gen- 
eral at once prepared to evacuate the town and fly to 
the defense of Mobile. The next morning he was in 
full march. Not a man had been lost. Less than 
twenty of the troops had been wounded, of whom Cap- 
tain Laval alone was obliged to be left behind to the 
care of Governor Maurequez. The gallant captain re- 
ceived every attention which his situation required. He 
recovered from his wound, and was living, in 1859, an 
honored citizen of Charleston, to tell the story of his 
own and his general's exploits. 

Jackson waited in the vicinity of Mobile for ten days 
in expectation of the arrival of Colonel Nichols. That 
officer did not appear, and from the top of Fort Bowyer 
no approaching fleet was descried. At length came in- 
telligence that Nichols, Woodbine, and their Indians 
had been landed at Appalachicola, where they were 
fortifying a position in all haste. Against them Jackson 
dispatched a body of troops and friendly Creeks, under 
Major Blue, who, after many remarkable adventures 
and some severe fighting, drove the savages into the 
interior and Colonel Nichols from the peninsula. 

General Jackson, now freed from apprehension for 
the safety of Mobile, could direct all his thoughts to 
the defense of New Orleans. He left Mobile in com- 
mand of General Winchester, of the regular army. Fort 
Bowyer was still intrusted to the brave Major Lawrence. 
General Coffee was ordered to move by easy marches 
toward New Orleans, choosing the roads and the course 
that promised the best forage. On the 226. of No- 
vember, the general, without any escort but his staff, 



MOBILE DEFENDED. I43 

mounted horse and rode off in the same direction. He 
had a journey before him of a hundred and seventy 
miles, over the roads of the early years of the century. 
Riding a little more than seventeen miles a day, he ar- 
rived within one short stage of New Orleans on the ist 
of December, 1814. 



CHAPTER XII. 

JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS, AND APPROACH OF THE 
BRITISH. 

New Orleans was all unprepared for defense against 
a powerful foe. When the first rumor of the approach- 
ing invasion reached the city, Edward Livingston, the 
leading lawyer of the State, caused a meeting of the 
citizens of New Orleans to be convened at Tremoulet's 
coffee-house, to concert measures for defense. The 
meeting occurred on the 15th of September, 1814. Upon 
taking the chair, Livingston presented a series of spirited 
resolutions, breathing union and defiance, and supported 
them by a speech of stirring eloquence. They were 
passed by acclamation. A Committee of Public Defense, 
nine in number, with Edward Livingston at its head, was 
appointed, and directed to prepare an address to the 
people of the State. The publication of the address, 
and the gift of a saber to the commandant of Fort Bow- 
yer, were the only acts of the Committee of Public De- 
fense that I find recorded. It may have induced the 
formation of new uniformed companies of volunteers; 
it may have stimulated the militia to a more vigorous 
drill; it may have induced the Governor to convene the 
Legislature ; but its main effect was upon the feelings 
and the fears of the people. 

On the 5th of October the Legislature, in obedience 
to the summons of Governor Claiborne, assembled at 
New Orleans. Factious, and incredulous of danger, it 



JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 145 

did nothing, it attempted nothing, for the defense of the 
city. Disputes of the most trivial character engrossed 
the minds of the members. All had some fear of an 
insurrection of the slaves. Every man had his scheme 
or his system of measures, which he knew would save 
the city if it were adopted; but none could bring any 
plan to bear, or get all the opportunity he wanted for 
making it known. In a word, there was no central 
power or man in New Orleans in whom the people suffi- 
ciently confided, or who possessed the requisite lawful 
authority to call out the resources of the State and di- 
rect them to the single object of defeating the expected 
invader. There was talent enough, patriotism enough, 
zeal enough. The uniting man alone was wanting — a 
man of renown sufficient to inspire confidence — a man un- 
known to the local animosities, around whom all parties 
could rally without conceding anything to one another. 

Jackson has come ! There was magic in the news. 
Every witness testifies to the electric effect of the gen- 
eral's quiet and sudden arrival. There was a truce at 
once to indecision, to indolence, to incredulity, to fac- 
tious debate, to paltry contentions, to wild alarm. H*e 
had come so worn down with disease and the fatigue of 
his ten days' ride on horseback that he was more fit for 
the hospital than the field ; but there was that in his 
manner and aspect which revealed the master. That 
will of his triumphed over the languor and anguish of 
disease, and every one who approached him felt that 
the man for the hour was there. 

He began his work without the loss of one minute. 
The unavoidable formalities of his reception were no 
sooner over than he mounted his horse again and rode 
out to review the uniformed companies of the city. 
These companies consisted of several hundred men, 
the elite of the city — merchants, lawyers, the sons of 



1^6 GENERAL JACKSON. 

planters, clerks, and others, who were well equipped, and 
not a little proud of their appearance and discipline- 
The general complimented them warmly, addressed the 
principal officers, inquired respecting th^ numbers, his- 
tory, and organization of the companies, and left them 
captivated with his frank and straightforward mode of 
procedure. 

Returning to his quarters, the general summoned the 
engineers resident in the city, among others Major 
Latour, afterward the historian of the campaign. The 
vulnerable points and practicable approaches were ex- 
plained and discussed, and the readiest mode of defend- 
ing each was considered and determined upon. Every 
bayou connecting the city with the adjacent bays, and 
through them with the Gulf of Mexico, was ordered to 
be obstructed by earth and sunken logs, and a guard to 
be posted at its mouth to give warning of an enemy's 
approach. It was determined that the neighboring 
planters should be invited to aid in the various works 
by gangs of slaves. Young gentlemen pressed to head- 
quarters offering to serve as aides to the general. Ed- 
ward Livingston, whose services in that capacity had 
been previously offered and accepted, was with the gen- 
eral from the first, doing duty as aide-de-camp, secretary, 
translator, confidential adviser, and connecting link gen- 
erally between the commander-in-chief and the hetero- 
geneous multitude he had come to defend. Never before, 
in the space of a few hours, did such a change come over 
the spirit of a threatened and imperiled city. The work 
to be done was ascertained and distributed during that 
afternoon and evening ; and it could be said that, before 
the city slept, every man in it able and willing to assist 
in preparing for the reception of the enemy, whether by 
mind or muscle, had his task assigned him, and was 
eager to enter upon its performance. 



JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 147 

The demeanor of General Jackson on this occasion 
was such as to inspire peculiar confidence. It was that 
of a man entirely resolved, and entirely certain of being 
able, to do what he had come to do. He never admitted 
a doubt of defeating the enemy. For his own part he 
had but one simple plan to propose, nor would hear of 
any other : to make all the preparations possible in the 
time and circumstances ; to strike the enemy wherever, 
whenever, and in what force soever, he might appear ; 
and to drive him back headlong into the sea, or bring 
him prisoner to New Orleans. A spirit of this kind is 
very contagious, particularly among such a susceptible 
and imaginative people as the French Creoles — a people 
not wise in council, not gifted with the instinct of legis- 
lation, but mighty and terrible when strongly com- 
manded. The new impulse from the general's quar- 
ters spread throughout the city. Hope and resolution 
sat on every countenance. 

Jackson was up betimes on the following morning, 
and set out in a barge, accompanied by aides and engi- 
neers, to see with his own eyes the lower part of the 
river. The principal mouth of the Mississippi was natu- 
rally but erroneously the first object of his solicitude, 
and he had dispatched Colonel A. P. Hayne from Mobile 
to the Balize, to ascertain whether the old fort there 
commanded the mouth of the river, and whether it could 
be made available for preventing the entrance of a hos- 
tile fleet. Colonel Hayne reported it useless. Some 
miles higher up the river, however, at a point where the 
navigation was peculiarly difficult, was Fort Philip, 
which it was supposed, and the event proved, could be 
rendered an impassable barrier to the enemy's ships. 
Thither Jackson repaired. He perceived the immense 
importance of the position, and, with the assistance of 
Major Latour, drew such plans and suggested such al- 



148 GENERAL JACKSON. 

terations of the works as made the fort entirely equal 
to the defense of the river. The stream, as every one 
knows, is narrow and swift, and presents so many obsta- 
cles to the ascent of large vessels, that an enemy unpro- 
vided with steamboats would scarcely have attempted 
to reach New Orleans by the river even if no fort was 
to be passed. Jackson returned to the city after six 
days' absence, with little apprehension of danger from 
that quarter. 

Desirous of seeing everything for himself, he pro- 
ceeded immediately upon a rapid tour of inspection 
along the borders of Lake Pontchartrain and Lake 
Borgne, those broad, shallow bays which afford to the 
commerce of New Orleans so convenient a back gate. 
He visited every bayou and fortification, suggesting ad- 
ditional works and stimulating the zeal of the people. 
He had then completed the first survey of his position, 
and, upon the whole, the result was assuring. He 
thought well of his situation. At least, he had little fear 
of a surprise. 

Let us take 'one glance at the lake approaches to 
the Crescent City before we proceed. Lake Pontchar- 
train is land-locked, except where a narrow strait con- 
nects it with Lake Borgne. That strait was defended 
by a fortification which, it was hoped, was capable of 
beating off the enemy. But not by that alone. Lake 
Borgne, too shallow for the admission of large seagoing 
vessels, would be crossed by the enemy, if crossed at all, 
in small coasting craft or ships' boats. Accordingly, on 
that lake Commodore Patterson had stationed a fleet of 
gunboats, six in number, carrying in all twenty-three 
guns and one hundred and eighty-two men, the whole 
under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Ap Catesby 
Jones. Lieutenant Jones was ordered to give prompt 
notice of the enemy's coming, and if threatened with 



JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. j^g 

attack to retire before the enemy and lead him on to 
the entrance of the strait that led into Lake Pontchar- 
train, and there anchor and fight to the last extremity. 
With the peculiar advantages of position which the place 
afforded, it was confidently expected that he would be 
able to defeat any force of small craft that the enemy 
were likely to have at command. 

It is evident that Lake Pontchartrain was universally 
regarded at the time as the most natural and obvious 
means of reaching the city, and the gunboats were 
chiefly relied upon for its defense. Upon them, too, the 
general mainly relied for the first information of the 
enemy's arrival. If the gunboats failed, the fort upon 
the strait was open to attack. If the gunboats failed, 
the vigilance of the pickets at the mouths of the bayous 
was the sole safeguard against a surprise. If the gun- 
boats failed, Lake Borgne offered no obstacle to the 
approach of an enemy except its shallowness and its 
marshy shores. If the gunboats failed, nothing could 
hinder the enemy from gaining a foothold within a very 
few miles of the city, unless the sentinels should descry 
their approach in time to send ample notice to the gen- 
eral. While the gunboats continued to cruise in the 
lake the city had a certain ground of security, and could 
sleep without fear of waking to find British regiments 
under its windows. 

But where was the army with which General Jackson 
was to execute his design of hurling into the Gulf of 
Mexico the invading host ? Let us see what forces he 
had and what forces he expected. 

The troops then in or near New Orleans, and its sole 
defenders as late as the middle of December, were these : 
Two half-filled, newly raised regiments of regular troops, 
numbering about eight hundred men ; Major Planche's 
high-spirited battalion of uniformed volunteers, about 



I^o GENERAL JACKSON. 

five hundred in number; two regiments of State militia, 
badly equipped, some of them armed with fowling-pieces, 
others with muskets, others with rifles, some without 
arms, all imperfectly disciplined; a battalion of free 
men of color. The whole amounted to about two thou- 
sand men. Two vessels of war lay at anchor in the 
river, the little schooner Carolina and the ship Louisi- 
ana, neither of them manned, and no one dreaming of 
what importance they were to prove. Commodore Pat- 
terson and a few other naval officers were in the city, 
ready when the hour should come, and, indeed, already 
rendering yeoman's service in many capacities. General 
Coffee, with the army of Pensacola, was approaching 
the city by slow marches, contending manfully with an 
inclement season, swollen streams, roads almost impass- 
able, and scant forage. He had three hundred men, 
nearly a tenth of his force, sick with fever, dysentery, 
and exhaustion. But he was coming. General Carroll, 
burning with zeal to join his old friend and commander, 
had raised a volunteer force in Tennessee early in the 
autumn, composed of men of substance and respecta- 
bility, and, after incredible exertions and many vexa- 
tious delays, had got them afloat upon the Cumberland. 
The State had been so stripped of arms that Carroll's 
regiment had not a weapon to every ten men. So many 
men had gone to the wars from Tennessee, that Peter 
Cartwright, that valiant son of the Methodist Church 
militant, found his congregations thin and his ingather- 
ings of new members far below the average. *' So many 
of our members," he says, "went into the war, and 
deemed it their duty to defend our common country 
under General Jackson." An extraordinary rise of the 
Cumberland, such as seldom occurs in November, en- 
abled General Carroll to make swift progress into the 
Ohio, and thence into the Mississippi, where another 



JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 151 

piece of good fortune befell him, so important that it 
may almost be said to have saved New Orleans. He 
overtook a boat-load of muskets, which enabled him to 
arm his men and drill them daily in their use on the 
roofs of his fleet of arks. 

Two thousand Kentuckians, under General Thomas 
and General Adair, were also on their way down the 
Mississippi — the worst provided body of men, perhaps, 
that ever went fifteen hundred miles from home to help 
defend a sister State. A few rifles they had among them, 
but no clothing suitable for the season, no blankets, no 
tents, no equipage. Besides food, they were furnished 
with just one article of necessity, namely, a cooking- 
kettle to every eighty men ! In a flotilla of boats 
hastily patched together on the banks of the Ohio, they 
started on their voyage, carrying provisions enough for 
exactly half the distance. They were agreeably disap- 
pointed* however, in their expectation of living a month 
on half rations, by overtaking a boat loaded with flour, 
and, thus supplied, they went on their way ragged but 
rejoicing. 

Such was General Jackson's situation, such the pos- 
ture of affairs in New Orleans, such the means and pros- 
pects of defense, on the 14th of December : two or 
three thousand troops in the city ; four thousand more 
within ten or fifteen days' march ; six gunboats on Lake 
Borgne ; two armed vessels on the river ; a small garri- 
son of regulars at Fort St. Philip ; another at the fort 
between the two lakes; the obstruction of the bayous 
still in progress ; the citizens hopeful and resolute, most 
of them at work, every man where he could do most for 
the cause ; the general returning to his quarters from 
his tour of inspection. 

At the western extremity of the island of Jamaica 
there are two headlands, eight miles apart, which inclose 



1^2 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Negril Bay, and render it a safe and convenient anchor- 
age. It was the rendezvous of the British fleet designed 
for the capture of New Orleans. November 24, 1814, was 
the day appointed for its final inspection and review pre- 
vious to its departure for Lake Borgne. A fleet of fifty 
armed vessels, many of them of the first magnitude, 
covered the waters of the bay, and the decks of the ships 
were crowded with red-coated soldiers. The four regi- 
ments, numbermg, with their sappers and artillerymen, 
three thousand one hundred men, who had fought the 
battle of Bladensburg, burned the public buildings of 
Washington, and lost their general near Baltimore the 
summer before, were on board the fleet. Four regiments, 
under General Keane, had come from England direct to 
re-enforce this army. Two regiments, composed in part 
of negro troops, supposed to be peculiarly adapted to the 
climate of New Orleans, had been drawn from the West 
Indies to join the expedition. The fleet could furnish, if 
required, a body of fifteen hundred marines. General 
Keane found himself, on his arrival from Plymouth, in 
command of an army of seven thousand four hundred 
and fifty men, which the marines of the fleet could swell 
to eight thousand nine hundred and fifty. The number 
of sailors could scarcely have been less than ten thou- 
sand, of whom a large portion could, and did, assist in 
the operations contemplated. 

Here was a force -of nearly twenty thousand men, a 
fleet of fifty ships carrying a thousand guns, and per- 
fectly appointed in every particular, commanded by 
officers some of whom had grown gray in victory. And 
this great armament was about to be directed against 
swamp-environed New Orleans, with its ragged, half- 
armed defenders floating down the Mississippi, or march- 
ing wearily along through the mire and flood of the Gulf 
shores, commanded by a general who had seen fourteen 



JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 153 

months' service and caught one glimpse of a civilized 
foe. The greater part of General Keane's army were 
fresh from the fields of the Peninsula, and had been led 
by victorious Wellington into France, to behold and 
share in that final triumph of British arms. To these 
Peninsular heroes were added the Ninety-third High- 
landers, recently from the Cape of Good Hope, one of the 
*' praying regiments " of the British army, as stalwart, as 
brave, as completely appointed a body of men as had 
stood in arms since Cromwell's Ironsides gave liberty 
and greatness to England. Indeed, there was not a 
regiment of those which had come from England to 
form this army which had not won brilliant distinction 
in strongly contested fields. The elite of England's 
army and navy were afloat in Negril Bay on that bright 
day of November when the last review took place. 

The day after the review, the Tonnant, the Ramilies, 
and two of the brigs weighed anchor and put to sea. 
The next morning the rest of the fleet followed. 

Three weeks of pleasant sailing in those tropical seas 
brought the fleet to the entrance of Lake Borgne, the 
shallowness of which forbade its near approach. The 
American gunboats were descried, and it was seen at 
once by the British admiral that offensive operations 
were impossible as long as that little fleet commanded 
the lake. A force of fifty large open boats, containing 
a thousand men, under Captain Lockyer, were dispatched 
from the British fleet against the gunboat flotilla. A 
dead calm prevented its retreat, and there was no re- 
source but to fight, in the open lake, this great arma- 
ment. A most gallant and resolute defense was made 
by Lieutenant Jones and the men under his command ; 
but nothing could avail against a force so overwhelm- 
ingly superior, and the little fleet was compelled to sur- 
render. 



154 GENERAL JACKSON. 

This obstacle removed, the British commander pre- 
pared to transport his army across the broad expanse of 
the lake to the vicinity of New Orleans, a distance of 
eighty miles. An advance party of sixteen hundred men 
found their way unobserved to the mouth of the Bayou 
Bienvenu, a sluggish creek about twenty miles below 
the city. This spot had early attracted the attention 
of General Jackson. It was, and is, a lonely, desolate 
place, resorted to only by fishermen and tourists. A 
little colony of Spanish fishermen had built a few rude 
huts there for their accommodation during the fishing 
season. A picket, consisting of a sergeant, eight white 
men, and three mulattoes, had been stationed in the vil- 
lage by General Villere, a planter of the neighborhood, 
to whom Jackson had assigned the duty of guarding the 
spot. No one anticipating danger in that quarter, the 
picket gradually relaxed their vigilance. Two British 
officers, Captain Spencer of the Carron and Lieutenant 
Peddie of the army, disguised in blue shirts and old tar- 
paulins, landed without exciting suspicion, bought over 
the Spanish fishermen and their boats, rowed up the 
bayou, reached the firm land along the banks of the 
great river, and drank of its waters. Having carefully 
noted all the features of the scene, questioning the ne- 
groes and others whom they met, they returned to Pine 
Island, whence they guided the advance of the British 
army to the fatal plain. 

It is denied by all American writers that the picket 
at the fisherman's village was surprised in the manner 
stated by English historians. Mr. Alexander Walker, 
who collected his information from the men themselves, 
gives this account of what transpired on the night of the 
landing : 

" Nothing occurred to attract the notice of this picket 
until about midnight on the 22d, when the sentinel on 



JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 155 

duty in the village called his comrade and informed him 
that some boats were coming up the bayou. It was no 
false alarm. These boats composed the advanced party 
of the British, which had been sent forward from the 
main body of the flotilla, under Captain Spencer, to re- 
connoiter and secure the village. 

" The Americans, perceiving the hopelessness of de- 
fending themselves against so superior a force, retired 
for concealment behind the cabin, where they remained 
until the barges had passed them. They then ran out 
and endeavored to reach a boat by which they might 
escape; but they were observed by the British, who ad- 
vanced toward them, seized the boat before it could be 
dragged into the water, and captured four of the picket. 
Four others were afterward taken on land. Of the four 
remaining, three ran into the canebrake, thence into the 
prairie, where they wandered about all day, until, worn 
down with fatigue and suffering, they returned to the 
village, happy to surrender themselves prisoners. One 
only escaped, and after three days of terrible hardships 
and constant perils, wandering over trembling prairies, 
through almost impervious canebrakes, swimming bay- 
ous and lagoons, and living on reptiles and roots, got 
safely into the American camp." 

Having effected a landing, the British army, led 
by General Keane himself, began a slow and toilsome 
march toward the city. An English officer describes the 
advance in a highly interesting manner. '' It was not," 
he says, " without many checks that we were able to 
proceed. Ditches frequently stopped us by running in a 
cross-direction too wide to be leaped, and too deep to 
be forded ; consequently, on all such occasions, the 
troops were obliged to halt till bridges were hastily con- 
structed of such materials as could be procured and 
thrown across. Having advanced in this manner for 



1^6 GENERAL JACKSON. 

several hours, we at length found ourselves approaching 
a more cultivated region. The marsh became gradually 
less and less continuous, being intersected by wider spots 
of firm ground ; the reeds gave place by degrees to 
wood, and the wood to inclosed fields. Upon these, 
however, nothing grew, harvest having long ago ended. 
They accordingly presented but a melancholy appear- 
ance, being covered with the stubble of sugar cane, 
which resembled the reeds which we had just quitted in 
everything except altitude. Nor as yet was any house 
or cottage to be seen. Though we knew, therefore, that 
human habitations could not be far off, it was impossible 
to guess where they lay or how numerous they might 
prove ; and as we could not tell whether our guides 
might not be deceiving us, and whether ambuscades 
might not be laid for our destruction as soon as we 
should arrive where troops could conveniently act, our 
march was insensibly conducted with increased caution 
and regularity, 

" But in a little while some groves of orange trees 
presented themselves, on passing which two or three farm- 
houses appeared. Toward these our advanced companies 
immediately hastened, with the hope of surprising the 
inhabitants and preventing any alarm from being raised. 
Hurrying on at double-quick time, they surrounded the 
buildings, succeeded in securing the inmates, and capt- 
ured several horses; but, becoming rather careless in 
watching their prisoners, one man contrived to effect 
his escape. Now, then, all hope of eluding observation 
might be laid aside. The rumor of our landing would, 
we knew, spread faster than we could march, and it only 
remained to make that rumor as terrible as possible. 

" With this view, the column was commanded to 
widen its files and to present as formidable an appear- 
ance as could be assumed. Changing our order in 



JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 157 

obedience to these directions, we marched not in sec- 
tions of eight or ten abreast, but in pairs, and thus con- 
trived to cover with our small division as large a tract 
of ground as if we had mustered thrice our present num- 
bers. Our steps were likewise quickened, that we might 
gain, if possible, some advantageous position where we 
might be able to cope with any force that might attack 
us; and, thus hastening on, we soon arrived at the main 
road which leads directly to New Orleans. Turning to 
the right, we then advanced in the direction of that town 
for about a mile, when, having reached a spot where it 
was considered that we might encamp in comparative 
safety, our little column halted, the men piled their arms, 
and a regular bivouac was formed. 

" The country where we had now established our- 
selves was a narrow plain of about a mile in width, 
bounded on one side by the Mississippi and on the other 
by the marsh from which we had just emerged. Toward 
the open ground this marsh was covered with dwarf-wood, 
having the semblance of a forest rather than a swamp ; 
but on trying the bottom it was found that both charac- 
ters were united, and that it was impossible for a man 
to make his way among the trees, so boggy was the soil 
upon which they grew. In no other quarter, however, 
was there a single hedgerow or plantation of any kind, 
excepting a few apple and other fruit trees in the gar- 
dens of such houses as were scattered over the plain, the 
whole being laid out in large fields for the growth of 
sugar cane, a plant which seems as abundant in this 
part of the world as in Jamaica. 

" Looking up toward the town, which we at this time 
faced, the marsh is upon your right and the river upon 
your left. Close to the latter runs the main road, fol- 
lowing the course of the stream all the way to New Or- 
leans. Between the road and the water is thrown up a 



jrg GENERAL JACKSON. 

lofty and strong embankment, resembling the dikes in 
Holland, and meant to serve a similar purpose, by means 
of which the Mississippi is prevented from overflowing 
its banks, and the entire flat is preserved from inun- 
dation. But the attention of a stranger is irresistibly 
drawn away from every other object to contemplate the 
magnificence of this noble river. Pouring along at the 
prodigious rate of four miles an hour, an immense body 
of water is spread out before you, measuring a full mile 
across and nearly a hundred fathoms in depth. What 
this mighty stream must be near its mouth I can hardly 
imagine, for we were here upward of a hundred miles 
from the ocean." 

The spot upon which, at noon on the 23d of Decem- 
ber, the British advance halted and stacked their arms 
was eight miles below the city, and, at the moment of 
the halt, General Jackson had received no intimation 
even of the landing of an enemy. If General Keane 
had pushed on, he could have taken New Orleans with- 
out firing a shot ; for, although General Coffee and Gen- 
eral Carroll had reached the town, the troops under 
their command were so widely scattered in and above 
the city that an adequate force could not have been as- 
sembled in time to resist the onset of the foe. 

But mark : " One man contrived to eflect his escape," 
records the British officer whose narrative we have 
quoted above. How many a gallant life hung upon the 
chances of that one man's capture ! The individual in- 
vested with such sudden and extreme importance was 
young Major Gabriel Villere, the son of General Villere, 
a Creole planter, upon whose plantation the British were 
then halting. Major Villere it was who had stationed 
the picket at the mouth of the bayou by which the 
English troops had gained the banks of the Mississippi, 
and stood now upon the high-road leading to the prize 



JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 1 59 

they were in search of, and within a few miles of it. He 
made all haste to New Orleans, joined on his way by two 
friends, and proceeded to headquarters. Judge Walker 
thus relates their interview with the general : " During 
all the exciting events of this campaign Jackson had 
barely the strength to stand erect without support ; his 
body was sustained alone by the spirit within. Ordinary 
men would have shrunk into feeble imbeciles or useless 
invalids under such a pressure. The disease contracted 
in the swamps of Alabama still clung to him. Reduced 
to a mere skeleton, unable to digest his food, and unre- 
freshed by sleep, his life seemed to be preserved by 
some miraculous agency. There, in the parlor of his 
headquarters in Royal Street, surrounded by his faithful 
and efficient aides, he worked day and night, organizing 
his forces, dispatching orders, receiving reports, and 
making all the necessary arrangements for the defense 
of the city. 

'' Jackson was thus engaged at half past one o'clock 
p. M. on the 23d of December, 1814, when his attention 
was drawn from certain documents he was carefully 
reading by the sound of horses galloping down the 
streets with more rapidity than comported with the or- 
der of a city under martial law. The sounds ceased at 
the door of his headquarters, and the sentinel on duty 
announced the arrival of three gentlemen who desired 
to see the general immediately, having important intelli- 
gence to communicate. 

" ' Show them in,' ordered the general. 

''The visitors proved to be Mr. Dussau de la Croix, 
Major Gabriel Villere, and Colonel de la Ronde. They 
were stained with mud, and nearly breathless with the 
rapidity of their ride. 

" ' What news do you bring, gentlemen ? ' eagerly 
asked the general. 



l6o GENERAL JACKSON. 

" ' Important ! highly important ! * responded Mr. de 
la Croix. * The British have arrived at Villere's planta- 
tion, nine miles below the city, and are there encamped. 
Here is Major Villere, who was captured by them, has 
escaped, and will now relate his story.' 

"The major accordingly detailed in a clear and per- 
spicuous manner the occurrences we have related, em- 
ploying his mother tongue, the French language, which 
De la Croix translated to the general. At the close of 
Major Villere's narrative the general exclaimed : 

" * By the Eternal, they shall not sleep on our soil ! ' 

" Then courteously inviting his visitors to refresh 
themselves, and sipping a glass of wine in compliment to 
them, he turned to his secretary and aides, and remarked : 

" ' Gentlemen, the British are below ; we must fight 
them to-night ! ' " 

Jackson proceeded to act as though everything had 
occurred exactly as he had anticipated. General Coffee's 
brigade was still encamped near the spot where they had 
first halted, four or five miles above the city. Major 
Planche's battalion was at the Bayou St. John, two miles 
from headquarters. The State militia, under Governor 
Claiborne, were on the Gentilly road, three miles away ; 
the regulars were in the city, but variously disposed. 
General Carroll and his Tennesseeans appear to have 
been still in the boats that brought them down the river. 
Commodore Patterson, too, was some distance off. 
General Jackson dispatched a messenger to each of the 
corps under his command, ordering them with all haste 
to break up their camp and march to positions assigned 
them — General Carroll to the head of the upper branch 
of the Bienvenu, Governor Claiborne to a point farther 
up the Gentilly road, which road leads from the Chef- 
Menteur to New Orleans ; the rest of the troops to a 
plantation just below the city. Commodore Patterson 



JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. l6l 

was also sent for and requested to prepare the Carolina 
for weighing anchor and dropping down the river. 

These orders issued, the general sat down to dinner 
and ate a little rice, which alone his system could then 
endure. He then lay down upon a sofa in his office 
and dozed for a short time. Before three o'clock he 
mounted his horse and rode to the lower part of the 
city, where then stood Fort St. Charles, on ground now 
occupied by the Branch Mint Building. Before the 
gates of the fort he took his station, waiting to see the 
troops pass on their way to the vicinity of the enemy's 
position and to give his final orders to the various 
commanders. Drawn up near him was one of the two 
regiments of regulars, the Forty-fourth Infantry, Col- 
onel Ross, mustering three hundred and thirty-one mus- 
kets. Around the general were gathered his six aides 
— Captain Butler, Captain Reid, Captain Chotard, Ed- 
ward Livingston, Mr. Davezac, and Mr. Duplessis. The 
other regiment of regulars, the Seventh Infantry, Major 
Piere, four hundred and sixty-five muskets, had already 
marched down the road to guard it against the enemy's 
advance. With them were sixty-six marines, twenty- 
two artillerymen, and two six-pounders, under Colonel 
McRea and Lieutenant Spotts, of the regular artillery. 
Captain Beal's famous company of New Orleans rifle- 
men, composed of merchants and lawyers of the city, 
were also below, defending the high-road. A cloud of 
dust on the levee and the thunder of horses' feet soon 
announced to the expectant general the approach of 
cavalry. Colonel Hinds, of the Mississippi Dragoons, 
emerged from the dust-cloud, galloping at the head of 
his troop, which he led swiftly by to its designated 
post. Coffee with his Tennesseeans was not far behind. 
Halting at the general's side, he conversed with him for 
a few minutes, and then, rejoining his men, gave the 



J 52 GENERAL JACKSON. 

word, *' Forward at a gallop ! " and the long line of back- 
woodsmen swept rapidly past. Next came into view a 
party-colored host on foot, at a run, which proved to be 
Major Planche's fine battalion of uniformed companies. 
"Ah ! " cried Jackson to his aide Davezac, " here come 
the brave Creoles." They had run all the way from the 
Fort St. John, and came breathless into the general's 
presence. In a moment they too had received their 
orders, and were again in motion. A battalion of col- 
ored freemen, under Major Dacquin, and a small body 
of Choctaw Indians, under Captain Jugeant, arrived, 
halted, passed on, and the general had seen his available 
force go by. The number of troops that went that after- 
noon to meet the enemy was twenty-one hundred and 
thirty-one, of whom considerably more than half had 
never been in action. 

The commanders of the different corps had all re- 
ceived the same simple orders : to advance as far as the 
Rodriguez Canal, six miles below the city and two 
miles above the Villere plantation, there to halt, take 
positions, and wait for orders to close with the enemy. 
The Rodriguez Canal was no more than a wide, shallow 
ditch, which extended across the firm ground from the 
river to the swamp. 

The last corps of the army had disappeared in the 
distance, and still the general lingered before the gates 
of Fort St. Charles, looking, with a slight expression of 
impatience on his countenance, toward that part of the 
river where the sloop of war Carolina was anchored. 
He saw her at length weigh her anchor and move slowly 
down the stream. She had been manned within the 
last few days, and well manned, as it proved, though 
some of her crew only learned their duty by doing it. 
Captain Henly commanded the little vessel. Commo- 
dore Patterson, however, was in no mood to stay in New 



JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 163 

Orleans on such a night, and so went in her to the scene 
of action. 

The general had no sooner seen the Carolina under 
way, than he put spurs to his horse, and galloped down 
the road by which the troops had gone, followed by 
all his staff except Captain Butler. Much against his 
will, Captain Butler was appointed to command in the 
city that night. It was four o'clock in the afternoon 
when the Carolina left her anchorage, and General 
Jackson rode away from before the gates of Fort St. 
Charles. The day was Friday. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER 23D. 

Four o'clock in the aftei-fioon. — Most of the Ameri- 
can troops have reached the Rodriguez Canal ; others 
are coming up every moment. They are all on or near 
the high-road which runs along the river's bank. The 
Second Division of the British army, consisting of the 
Twenty-first, the Forty-fourth, and the Ninety-third 
Highlanders, is nearing the fishermen's village at the 
mouth of the Bayou Bienvenu. The party in advance 
is quiescent and unsuspecting on and about the Villere 
plantation. General Keane and Colonel Thornton are 
pacing the piazza of the Villere mansion, Keane satisfied 
with his position, Thornton distrusting it. 

Half past four. — The first American scouting party, 
consisting of five mounted riflemen, advance toward the 
British camp to reconnoiter. They advance too far, and 
retire with the loss of one horse killed and two men 
wounded. The first blood of the land campaign is shed; 
Thomas Scott, the name of the first wounded man. Ma- 
jor Blanche's battalion of Creole volunteers are now be- 
ginning to arrive. 

Five o'clock. — The general is with his little army, 
serene, confident. He believes he is about to capture 
or destroy those red-coats in his front, and he communi- 
cates some portion of his own assurance to those around 
him. First, Colonel Hayne, inspector-general of the 
army, shall go forward with Colonel Hinds's hundred 



NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD. 165 

horsemen, to see what he can of the enemy's posi- 
tion and numbers. The hundred horsemen advance; 
dash into the British pickets; halt while Colonel Hayne 
takes a survey of the scene before him ; wheel, and 
gallop back. Colonel Hayne reports the enemy's 
strength at two thousand. But what are these printed 
bills stuck upon the plantation fences? 

" LouisiANiANS ! Remain quiet in your houses. 
Your slaves shall be preserved to you, and your 

PROPERTY RESPECTED. We MAKE WAR ONLY AGAINST 

Americans ! " 

Signed by General Keane and Admiral Cochrane. 
A negro was overtaken by the returning cavalrymen, 
with printed copies of this proclamation upon his person, 
in Spanish and French. Twilight deepens into dark- 
ness. It is the shortest day of the year but two. The 
moon rises hazy and dim, yet bright enough for that 
night's work, if it will only last. The American host is 
very silent — silent, because such is the order; silent, 
because they are in no mood to chatter. The more 
provident and lucky of the men eat and drink what 
they have, but most of them neither eat nor hunger. 
As the night drew on the British watch fires, numerous 
and brilliant, became visible, disclosing completely their 
position, and lighting the Americans the way they were 
to go. 

Six o'clock. — The general-in-chief has completed his 
scheme, and part of it is in course of execution. It was 
the simple old backwoods plan of cornering the enemy ; 
the best possible for the time and place. Coffee, with 
his own riflemen, with Beale's New Orleans sharp-shoot- 
ers, with Hinds's dragoons, was to leave the river's side, 
march across the plain to the cypress swamp, turn down 
toward the enemy, wheel again, attack them in the flank 
and crowd them to the river. With General Coffee, as 
12 



1 56 GENERAL JACKSON. 

guide and aide, went Colonel de la Ronde, the proprietor 
of one of the plantations embraced in the circle of oper- 
ations. A circuitous march of five miles, over moist, 
rough, obstructed ground, lay before General Coffee, 
and he was already in motion. Jackson, with the main 
fighting strength of the army, was to keep closer to the 
river and open an attack directly upon the enemy's 
position ; the artillery and marines upon the high-road ; 
the two regiments of regulars to the left of the road; 
Planche's battalion, Dacquin's colored freemen, Jugeant's 
Choctaws still farther to the left, so as to complete the 
line of attack across the plain. The Carolina was to 
anchor opposite the enemy's camp, close in shore, and 
pour broadsides of grape and round shot into their 
midst. From the Carolina was to come the signal of 
attack. Not a shot to be fired, not a sound uttered, 
till the schooner's guns were heard. Then, Coffee, 
Planche, regulars, marines, Indians, negroes, artillery, 
Jackson, all advance at once, and girdle the foe with 
fire! 

Half past six. — The Carolina arrives opposite Gen- 
eral Jackson's position. Edward Livingston goes on 
board of her, explains the plan of attack, communicates 
the general's orders to Commodore Patterson, and re- 
turns to his place at the general's side. "It continuing 
calm," says the commodore in his official dispatch, " got 
out sweeps, and a few minutes after, having been fre- 
quently hailed by the enemy's sentinels, anchored, veered 
out a long scope of cable, and sheered close in shore 
abreast of their camp." The commodore's "few min- 
utes" was three-quarters of an hour at least, according 
to the other accounts. Pie had more than two miles 
to go before reaching the spot where he " veered out the 
long reach of cable " — itself an operation not done in 
a moment. 



NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD. 



67 



Seven o'clock. — The night has grown darker 'than 
was hoped. Coffee has made his way across the plain. 
Behind a ditch separating two plantations he is dis- 
mounting his men. Cavalry could not be employed 
upon such ground in the dark. Leaving the horses 
in charge of a hundred of his riflemen, he is about to 
march with the rest to find and charge the enemy. He 
has still a long way to go, and wants a full hour, at 
least, to come up with them. General Coffee, a man 
of few words, and intent on the business of the hour 
delivers an oration in something like these words : 

" Men, you have often said you could fight ; now is 
the time to prove it. Don't waste powder. Be sure of 
your mark before firing." 

Half past seven. — The first gun from the Carolina 
booms over the plain, followed in quick succession by 
seven others — the schooner's first broadside. It lays 
low upon the moist delta a hundred British soldiers, as 
some compute or guess. Jackson hears it, and yet 
withholds the expected word of command. Coffee 
hears it too soon, but he makes haste to respond. The 
English division then landing at the fishermen's village 
hear it and hurry tumultuously toward the scene of ac- 
tion, and the boats go back to Pine Island with the 
news. New Orleans hears it. A great crowd of women, 
children, old men, and slaves, assembled in the square 
before the State House, see the flash and listen to the 
roar of the guns. 

Other broadsides follow, as fast as men can load. 
And yet, strange to say, the people on board the terrible 
schooner knew nothing all that night of the effect their 
fire produced ; knew not whether they had contributed 
anything or nothing to the final issue of the strife. 
Commodore Patterson simply says : " Commenced a 
heavy (and, as I have since learned, most destructive) 



1 58 GENERAL JACKSON. 

fire from our starboard battery and small-arms, which 
was returned most spiritedly by the enemy with con- 
greve rockets and musketry from their whole force, 
when, after about forty minutes of most incessant fire, 
the enemy was silenced. The fire from our battery was 
continued till nine o'clock upon the enemy's flank while 
engaged in the field with our army, at which hour ceased 
firing, supposing, from the distance of the enemy's fire 
(for it was too dark to see anything on shore), that they 
had retreated beyond the range of our guns. Weighed 
and swept across the river, in hopes of a breeze the next 
morning, to enable me to renew the attack upon the 
enemy should they be returned to their encampment." 

So much for the Carolina. What she did, we know. 
But I defy any living being to say with positiveness and 
in detail what occurred on shore. The contradictions 
between the British and American accounts, and between 
the various American narratives, are so irreconcilable, 
that the narrator who cares only for the truth pauses 
bewildered and knows not what to believe. But exact- 
ness of detail is not important in describing this unique 
battle. A more successful night attack, or one that 
more completely gained not the object proposed but 
the objects most necessary to be gained, was never 
made. That fact alone might suffice. Yet, let us peer 
into the thickening darkness, and see what we can dis- 
cern of the credible, the probable, and the certain, bor- 
rowing other people's eyes when our own fail. 

Jackson opened his attack with curious deliberation. 
He waited patiently for the Carolina's guns. And when 
the thunder of her broadside broke the silence of the 
night, he still waited. For ten minutes, which seemed 
thirty, he let the little schooner wage the combat alone, 
hoping to fix the attention of the enemy exclusively 
upon her. 



NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD. 



169 



Then—" Forward ! " 

Down the high-road, close to the river, with the 
Seventh Regiment, the artillery, and the marines, Jackson 
advanced. A light breeze from the river blew over the 
plain the smoke of the Carolina's incessant fire, to which 
was added a fog then beginning to rise from the river. 
Lighted only by the flash of the guns and the answering 
musketry and rockets, the general pushed on, and had 
approached within less than a mile of the British head- 
quarters, when the company in advance, under Lieuten- 
ant McClelland, received a brisk fire from a British out- 
post lying in a ditch behind a fence near the road. 
Colonel Piatt, quartermaster-general, who was with this 
company, ran to the front, and, seeing the red-coats by 
the flash of their own guns, cried out : 

" Come out and fight like men, on open ground ! " 

Without giving them time to comply with this invita- 
tion, he poured a volley into their midst, and kept up an 
active fire for four or five minutes. The British picket 
gave way, and over the fence leaped Piatt's company, 
and occupied the post they had abandoned. This was 
the first success of the battle, but it was very short. In 
a few minutes a large party of British, two hundred it 
is said, came up to regain their lost position, and opened 
a fire upon the victorious company. Its gallant com- 
mander. Lieutenant McClelland, fell dead ; Colonel Piatt 
was wounded ; a sergeant was killed ; several of the 
men were wounded, and it was going hardly with the 
little band. In the nick of time, however, the two 
pieces of cannon were placed in position on the road 
and began a most vigorous fire, relieving the advanced 
company, and compelling the enemy to keep his distance. 
A second time the Americans were successful, for a 
moment. Soon a formidable force of British came up 
the road, and opened fire upon the artillerymen and 



I^O GENERAL JACKSON. 

marines, evidently designing to take the guns. The 
marines recoiled before the leaden tempest. The horses 
attached to the cannon, wounded by the fire, reared, 
plunged, became unmanageable, and one of the pieces 
was overturned into the ditch by the side of the road. 
It was a moment of frightful and nearly fatal confusion. 
Jackson dashed into the fire, accompanied by two of his 
aides, and roared out with that startling voice of his: 
" Save the guns, my boys, at every sacrifice ! " 
The presence of the general restored and rallied the 
marines as another company of the Seventh came up, 
and the guns were " protected," says Major Eaton — 
which probably means drawn out of danger. All this 
was the work of a very few minutes. The other com- 
panies of the Seventh and the whole of the Forty- 
fourth, were meanwhile engaged in a miscellaneous, de- 
sultory, indescribable manner. 

General Coffee, though the signal came a little too 
early for him, was in the thick of the fight sooner 
than he had expected. Having reached the Viller6 
plantation, he wheeled toward the river and marched 
in a widely extended line, each man to fight, in the 
Indian fashion, on his own account. He expected to 
come up with the enemy near the river's bank, and 
would have done so if the Carolina had begun her fire 
half an hour later. The enemy, however, had then had 
time to recover from their confusion, to abandon the 
river, and to form in various positions across the plain. 
General Coffee had not advanced a hundred yards from 
the swamp before he was astonished to find himself in 
the presence of the British Eighty-fifth. *' A war of 
duels and detachments" ensued, with varying fortune; 
but the deadly and unerring fire of Coffee's cool rifle- 
men, accustomed from of old to night warfare with 
Indians, acquainted with all the arts of covert and 



NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD, lyi 

approach, was too much for the British infantry. From 
orange grove, from behind negro huts, the Eighty-fifth 
slowly retired toward the river, until at length they took 
post behind an old levee near the high-road. Bayonets 
alone could dislodge them thence, and the Tennesseeans 
had no bayonets. Coffee, too, retired to cover, and sent 
to the general for orders. 

Captain J. N. Cooke, a British officer, who wrote a 
narrative of this unexampled campaign, gives a lively 
picture of the battle at the time when Coffee was fight- 
ing his way across the plain : " Lumps and crowds of 
American militia, who were armed with rifles and long 
hunting-knives for close quarters, now crossed the 
country, and by degrees getting nearer to the head- 
quarters of the British, they were met by some com- 
panies of the rifle corps and the Eighty-fifth Light In- 
fantry ; and here again such confusion took place as 
seldom occurs m war— the bayonet of the British and 
the knife of the American were in active opposition at 
close quarters during this eventful night, and, as pro- 
nounced by the Americans, it was 'rough and tumble.' 

" The darkness was partially dispelled for a few mo- 
ments now and then by the flashes of firearms, and 
whenever the outlines of men were distinguishable the 
Americans called out, ' Don't fire— we are your friends ! ' 
Prisoners were taken and retaken. The Americans were 
litigating and wrangling, and protesting that they were 
not taken fairly, and were hugging their firearms, and 
bewailing their separation from a favorite rifle that they 
wished to retain as their lawful property. 

" The British soldiers, likewise, hearing their mother 
tongue spoken, were captured by this deception ; when 
such mistakes being detected, the nearest American re- 
ceived a knock-down blow, and in this manner prisoners 
on both sides, having escaped, again joined in the fray. 



172 



GENERAL JACKSON. 



calling out lustily for their respective friends. Here were 
fighting and straggling flashes of fire darting through the 
gloom like the tails of so many comets. 

"At this most remarkable night encounter the British 
were fighting on two sides of a ragged triangle, their 
left face pounded by the fire from the sloop and their 
right face engaged with the American land forces. Hal- 
len was still fighting in front at the apex. 

*' At one time the Americans pushed round Hallen's 
right and got possession of the high-road behind him, 
where they took Major Mitchell and thirty riflemen 
going to his assistance. But Hallen was inexorable, and 
at no time had more than one hundred men at his dis- 
posal ; the riflemen coming up from the rear by twos 
and threes to his assistance when he had lost nearly half 
his picket in killed and wounded. And behind him was 
such confusion, that an English artillery officer declared 
that the flying illumination encircling him was so unac- 
countably strange, that had he not pointed his brass 
cannon to the front at the beginning of the fight he 
could not have told which was the proper front of battle 
(as the English soldiers were often firing one upon the 
other, as well as the Americans), except by looking to- 
ward the muzzle of his three-pounder, which he dared 
not fire from the fear of bringing down friends and foes 
by the same discharge, seeing, as he did, the darkness 
suddenly illuminated across the country by the flashing 
of muskets at every point of the compass." 

Such were the scenes enacted on the plains of the 
delta in the evening of December 23, 1814, for about 
the space of an hour and a half. 

Nine o'clock. — The Carolina, as we have seen, ceases 
her fire. The Second Division of English troops has 
arrived and mingled in the battle, more than repairing 
the casualties of the night in the English army. The 



NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD. 173 

fog, rising from the river, has spread densely over the 
field, first enveloping Jackson's division, which was near- 
est the river, then rolling over the entire plain. The 
general has heard nothing of General Coffee since he 
parted with him at six o'clock. He concludes now to 
suspend all operations till the dawn of day. Coffee's 
messenger finds the general at length, and departs with 
an order for General Coffee to withdraw his men from 
the field and rejoin the right wing with all dispatch. 

Ten o'clock. — The American troops have retired, and 
are spread over the plain a mile or more from the scene 
of conflict. The wounded, all of them that can be found, 
are brought in and conveyed toward the city. The in- 
habitants of New Orleans have learned enough of the 
issue of the fight to allay their apprehensions of imme- 
diate danger; but women still sit at home or flit about 
the streets in an agony of suspense to learn something 
of the fate of fathers, husbands, and brothers. The ar- 
rival of British prisoners is noised about, cheering all 
but those who have staked more than life in the contest. 
General Jackson has as yet no thought but to renew 
the battle the moment it is light enough to find the foe, 
and to that end sends a dispatch to General Carroll, 
who is guarding the city from attack from above, order- 
ing him, if no sign of an enemy has appeared in that 
quarter, to join the main body instantly with all his 
force. 

The battle over, we can reckon up its cost, while the 
troops, reassembled, are eagerly narrating their several 
adventures or performing sad duties to wounded com- 
rades and the dead. The British have lost to-night, ac- 
cording to General Keane's official report, forty-six killed, 
one hundred and sixty-seven wounded, and sixty-four 
prisoners and deserters. Lieutenant De Lacy Evans, 
afterward member of Parliament, and more recently one 



jy. GENERAL JACKSON. 

of the heroes of the Crimea, was among the wounded. 
The American loss was — killed, twenty- four; wounded, 
one hundred and fifteen ; missing, seventy-four. 

One o'clock in the morning. — Silence reigns in both 
camps. There have been occasional alarms during the 
night and some firing, enough to keep both armies on 
the alert. Noise of an approaching host from the city 
is heard soon after one, which proves to be General 
Carroll and his men, who have marched down with Ten- 
nesseean swiftness. But Jackson has changed his mind. 
British deserters have brought information of the arrival 
of re-enforcements to General Keane's army, and of still 
further forces to arrive on the morrow. Is it prudent 
to risk the campaign and the city upon an open fight 
between twenty-five hundred raw troops without bayo- 
nets and six or seven thousand disciplined British soldiers 
who have bayonets and know how to use them ? That 
question, argued around the general's bivouac at mid- 
night, admitted of but one answer. It was resolved, then, 
in the midnight council on the fog-covered field, to re- 
tire at daybreak to the old position behind the Rodriguez 
Canal, there to throw up whatever line of defense might 
be possible and await the enemy's attack. The two 
men-of-war shall anchor off the levee and cover the 
high-road with their guns. If necessary, the levee shall 
be pierced and the plain between the two armies flooded. 
Hinds's dragoons, who could not join in the night battle, 
shall hold the position between the two armies and con- 
ceal the contemplated movements. 

Slowly, very slowly, the hours of darkness wore away. 
" The night," says Nolte, " was very cold. Wearied by 
our long march and standing in the open field, we all 
wanted to make a fire, and at length, at the special re- 
quest of our major, permission to kindle one was ob- 
tained. Within twenty minutes we saw innumerable 



NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD. 175 

watch fires blazing up in a line extending like a crescent 
from the shores of the Mississippi to the woods, and 
stretching far away behind the plantations of Villere, 
Lacoste, and others occupied by the English, on whose 
minds, as well as on our own, the impression must have 
been produced that Jackson had many more troops 
under his command and near the spot than any one had 
supposed." 

The fires were not lighted too soon, for in the fight 
many of Coffee's men had thrown away their long coats 
and stood shivering through the night in their shirt- 
sleeves. Indeed, both brigades of Tennesseeans were in 
sorry plight with regard to clothes when they arrived, 
and few came out of the battle with a whole garment. 
There will be busy sewing-circles to-morrow in New 
Orleans, seasoned with tales of the brave deeds done by 
the ragged heroes of the night battle. And all over the 
field shall wander, after dawn, Tennesseeans hunting up 
lost coats, lost tomahawks and knives, lost horses, and, 
alas ! lost comrades, cold forever, for whom there will 
be proud mourning in the log-houses of Tennessee. 
" These poor fellows," wrote a British officer, who with 
General Keane walked over part of the field, " presented 
a strange appearance. Their hair, eyebrows, and lashes 
were thickly covered with hoarfrost or rime, their blood- 
less cheeks vying with its whiteness. Few were dressed 
in military uniforms, and most of them bore the appear- 
ance of farmers or husbandmen. Peace to their ashes ! 
They had nobly died in defending their country." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 

The Rodriguez Canal was an old mill race partly 
filled up and grown over with grass. In the early days 
of the colony the planters built their mills on the levee, 
and obtained water power by cutting canals from the 
river to the swamp, through which poured an abundant 
flood during the periodical swellings of the river. The 
Rodriguez Canal crossed the plain where the plain was 
narrowest ; and this circumstance it was that rendered 
the position chosen by General Jackson for his line of 
intrenchments the best which the vicinity afforded. 

Daylight dawned. The fog slowly lifted. Never 
was the light of day welcomer to the longing sons of 
men. The earliest light found the main body of Jack- 
son's army in their former position behind the canal. 
Everything that New Orleans could furnish in the shape 
of spade, shovel, pickaxe, crowbar, wheelbarrow, cart, 
had been sent for hours before, and the first supplies 
began to arrive almost as soon as the men were ready 
to use them. Now let there be such digging, shoveling 
and heaping up of earth as the Delta of the Mississippi, 
or any other delta, has never seen since Adam delved ! 

The canal was deepened and the earth thrown up on 
the side nearest the city. The fences were torn away, 
and the rails driven in to keep the light soil from falling 
back again into the canal. Soft palms, which had never 
before handled anything harsher than a pen, a fishing- 



SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 177 

rod, or a lady's waist, blistered and bled, and felt it not. 
Each company had its own line of embankment to throw 
up, which it called its castle, and strained every muscle 
in friendly rivalry to make it overtop the castles of the 
rest. 

The nature of the soil rendered the task one of pe- 
culiar difficulty. Dig down three feet anywhere in that 
singular plain and you come to water. Earth soon be- 
came the scarcest of commodities near the lines, and 
had to be brought from far, after the first hours. An 
idea occurs to an ingenious French intellect. Cotton 
bales ! The town is full of cotton ; and lo ! here, close 
to the lines, is a vessel laden with cotton, waiting for a 
chance to get to sea. The idea, plausible as it was, did 
not stand the test of service. The first cannonade 
knocked the cotton bales about in a manner that made 
the general more eager to get rid of them than he had 
been to use them. Some of the bales, too, caught fire 
and made a most intolerable and persistent smoke, so 
that, days before the final conflict, every pound of cot- 
ton was removed from the lines. A similar error was 
made by the enemy, who, supposing that sugar would 
offer resistance to cannon balls equal to sand, employed 
hogsheads of sugar in the formation of their batteries. 
The first ball that knocked a hogshead to pieces and 
kept on its destructive way unchecked, convinced them 
that sugar and sand, though often found together, have 
little in common. 

During the 24th the entire line of defense, a mile 
long, was begun, and raised in some places to a height 
of four or five feet. The work was not interrupted by 
the enemy for a moment, nor was there any alarm or 
sign of their approach. Before night two small pieces 
of cannon were placed in position on the high-road. 

In the course of the morning Major Latour was 



J ^3 GENERAL JACKSON. 

ordered to cut the levee at a point one hundred yards 
below the lines. The water rushed through the open- 
ing and flooded the road to the depth of three feet. A 
day or two after, an engineer was sent below the British 
camp to let in the water behind them, so as to render 
their position an island. If the river had been as high 
as it occasionally is in December, and always is in the 
spring, the campaign would have had a ludicrous and 
bloodless termination, for nearly the whole plain could 
have been laid under water, and the enemy would have 
found no sufficient resting-place for the soles of so many 
feet. It chanced, however, that the rise of the river at 
this time was only temporary. The water soon fell to 
the level of the road ; and the piercing of the levee 
really aided the English, by filling up and rendering 
more navigable the creeks in their rear, by which their 
supplies were brought up. For a day or two only the 
flooding of the road was serviceable in giving an appear- 
ance of security to the lines near the river. 

Early in the morning the Carolina, from her anchor- 
age opposite the British camp, and the Louisiana, from 
an advantageous position a mile above, played upon the 
enemy whenever a red-coat show^ed itself within range. 
General Keane found himself, to his astonishment, be- 
sieged ! Not a column could be formed upon the plain, 
which was torn up in every direction by the Carolina's 
accurate and incessant fire. Never was an army more 
strangely, more unexpectedly, more completely para- 
lyzed. They could do absolutely nothing but cower 
under embankments, skulk behind huts, lie low in dry 
ditches, or else retire beyond the reach of that terrible 
fire which they had no means of silencing or answering. 

And on this busy Saturday — the day before the best 
day of the Christian year — while such events as these 
were transpiring on the Delta of the Mississippi, what a 



SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 



179 



different scene was enacting at Ghent, three thousand 
miles away ! In Senator Seward's Life of John Quincy 
Adams we read : " Mr. Todd, one of the secretaries of 
the American commissioners, and son-in-law of Presi- 
dent Madison, had invited several gentlemen, Americans 
and others, to take refreshments with him on the 24th 
of December. At noon, after having spent some time in 
pleasant conversation, the refreshments entered, and 
Mr, Todd said : ' It is twelve o'clock. Well, gentlemen, 
I announce to you that peace has been made and signed 
between America and England.' In a few moments, 
Messrs. Gallatin, Clay, Carroll, and Hughes entered, 
and confirmed the annunciation. This intelligence was 
received with a burst of joy by all present. The news 
soon spread through the town, and gave general satis- 
faction to the citizens. At Paris the intelligence was 
hailed with acclamations. In the evening the theatres 
resounded with cries of ' God save the Americans ! ' " 

Had there then been an Atlantic telegraphic cable ! 

The light of Christmas morning found the English 
army disheartened almost to the degree of despair. " I 
shall eat my Christmas dinner in New Orleans," said Ad- 
miral Cochrane on the day of the landing. The remark 
was reported by a prisoner to General Jackson, who said, 
" Perhaps so ; but I shall have the honor of presiding at 
that dinner." As usual when affairs go wrong, the gen- 
eral in command was the scapegoat. By every camp fire, 
in every hut, at every outpost, the conduct of General 
Keane was severely criticised. 

Though discouragement was the habitual feeling of 
the British troops from the night of the 23d until the 
end, yet an event on this Christmas morning occurred 
which for the time dispelled the prevailing gloom. This 
was the arrival in camp, to take command of the troops, 
of Major-General Sir Edward Pakenham, and with him, 



l8o GENERAL JACKSON. 

as second in command, Major-General Samuel Gibbs, 
besides several staff officers of experience and distinc- 
tion. In a moment hope revived and animation reap- 
peared. General Pakenham, the brother-in-law of the 
Duke of Wellington, a favorite of the duke and of the 
army, was of north of Ireland extraction, like the an- 
tagonist with whom he had come to contend. Few sol- 
diers of the Peninsular War had won such high and 
rapid distinction as he. At Salamanca, at Badajos — 
wherever, in fact, the fighting had been fiercest — there 
had this brave soldier done a man's part for his coun- 
try, often foremost among the foremost. He was now 
but thirty-eight years of age, and the record of his 
bright career was written all over his body in scars. 
Conspicuous equally for his humanity and for his cour- 
age, he had ever lifted his voice and his arm against 
those monstrous scenes of pillage and outrage which 
disgraced the British name at the capture of the strong- 
holds of Spain ; hanging a man upon one occasion upon 
the spot, without trial or law, and thus, according to 
Napier, " nipping the wickedness in the bud." 

General Pakenham inherited General Keane's errone- 
ous information respecting Jackson's strength. Keep- 
ing this fact in view, his first measure seems judicious 
enough. To blow the Carolina out of the water was 
General Pakenham's first resolve. Till that is done he 
thinks no movement of the troops is possible. With in- 
credible toil, nine fieldpieces, two howitzers, one mortar, 
a furnace for heating balls, and a supply of the requisite 
implements and ammunition, were brought from the 
fleet and dragged to the British camp. By the evening 
of the 26th they have all arrived, and are ready to be 
placed in position on the levee as soon as darkness 
covers the scene of operations and silences the Caro- 
lina's exasperating fire. The little schooner lay near 



SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. igi 

the opposite shore of the river, just where she had 
dropped her anchor after swinging away from the scene 
of the night action of the 23d. There she had re- 
mained immovable ever since, firing at the enemy as 
often as he showed himself. A succession of north- 
erly winds and dead calms rendered it impossible 
for Captain Henly to execute his purpose of getting 
nearer the British position, nor could he move the vessel 
higher up against the strong current of the swollen 
Mississippi. In a word, the Carolina was a fixture, a 
floating battery. What is very remarkable, considering 
the great annoyance caused by the fire of this schooner, 
she had but one gun, a long twelve, as Captain Henly 
reports, which could throw a ball across the river. 

The headquarters of General Jackson were now at a 
mansion-house about two hundred yards behind the 
American lines. From an upper window of this house, 
above the trees in which it was embosomed, the gen- 
eral surveyed the scene below : the long line of men at 
work upon the mtrenchments; Hinds's dragoons ma- 
noeuvring and galloping to and fro between the two 
armies ; the Carolina and Louisiana in the stream vom- 
iting their iron thunder upon the foe. With the aid of an 
old telescope lent him by an aged Frenchman, which 
appears to have been the only instrument of the kind 
procurable in the place, he scanned the British position 
anxiously and often. He was surprised, puzzled, and 
perhaps a little alarmed at the enemy's prolonged inac- 
tivity. What could they be doing down there behind 
the plantation houses ? Why should they, unless they 
had some deep scientific scheme on foot, quite beyond 
the penetration of backwoodsmen, allow him to go on 
strengthening his position day after day, without the 
slightest attempt at molestation ? 

It was not in the nature of Andrew Jackson to wait 
13 



J 32 GENERAL JACKSON. 

long for an enemy to attack. Too prudent to trust his 
raw troops in an open fight with an army twice his num- 
ber, it occurred to him on the afternoon of the 26th 
that there might be another and a safer way to dis- 
lodge them from their covert ; at least, to disturb them 
in the development of whatever scheme they might be 
so quietly concocting. He sent for Commodore Patter- 
son. Upon the arrival of the commodore at headquar- 
ters, a short conference took place between the naval 
and the military hero. Then the gallant commodore 
hurries off to New Orleans. His object is to ascertain 
whether a few of the merchant vessels lying idle at the 
levee can not be instantly manned, and armed each with 
two thirty-two-pounders from the navy yard ; and if they 
can, to set them floating down toward the British posi- 
tion, where, dropping anchor, they shall join in the 
cannonade, and sweep the plain from side to side with 
huge, resistless balls. No plantation houses, no negro 
huts, no shallow ditches, no attainable distance will then 
avail the invading army. 

Commodore Patterson could not succeed in his er- 
rand in time ; but he bore in mind the general's hint, 
and in due time acted upon it in another way with 
effect. 

At dawn of day on the 27th the American troops 
were startled by the report of a larger piece of ordnance 
than they had yet heard from the enemy's camp. The 
second shot from the great guns placed by the British 
on the levee during the night, white hot, struck the Car- 
olina, pierced her side and lodged in the main hold un- 
der a mass of cables, where it could neither be reached 
nor quenched. And this was but the prelude to a furi- 
ous cannonade, which sent the bombs and hot balls 
hissing and roaring about her, penetrating her cabin, 
knocking away her bulwarks, and bringing down rigging 



SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 



183 



and spars about the ears of the astonished crew. Cap- 
tain Henly replied as best he could with his single long 
twelve, while both armies lined and thronged the levee, 
watching the unequal combat with breathless interest. 

No, not breathless. As often as the schooner was 
hit, cheers from the British troops rent the morning air ; 
and whenever a well-aimed shot from the Carolina drove 
the British gunners for a moment under the shelter of 
the levee, shouts from the Americans applauded the de- 
voted crew. General Jackson was at his high window 
spying the combat. Perceiving from the first how it 
must end, he sent an emphatic order to Lieutenant 
Thompson, of the Louisiana, to get that vessel out of 
range if it was in the power of man to do it. General 
Pakenham stood on the levee near his guns cheering on 
the artillerymen. 

Half an hour of this work was enough for the Caro- 
lina. " Finding," says Captain Henly, in his report to 
Commodore Patterson, with the blunt pathos of a sailor 
mourning for the loss of his vessel, "that hot shot were 
passing through her cabin and filling-room, which con- 
tained a considerable quantity of powder, her bulwarks 
all knocked down by the enemy's shot, the vessel in a 
sinking condition, and the fire increasing, and expecting 
every moment that she would blow up, at a little after 
sunrise I reluctantly gave orders for the crew to aban- 
don her, which was effected with the loss of one man 
killed and six wounded. A short time after I had suc- 
ceeded in getting the crew on shore I had the extreme 
mortification of seeing her blow up." 

The explosion was terrific. It shook the earth for 
miles around; it threw a shower of burning fragments 
over the Louisiana, a mile distant ; it sent a shock of 
terror to thousands of listening women in New Orleans; 
it gave a momentary discouragement to the American 



1 84 GENERAL JACKSON. 

troops. The English army, whom the schooner's fire 
had tormented for four days, raised a shout of exulta- 
tion, as though the silencing of that single gun had re- 
moved the only obstacle to their victorious advance. 

But the Louisiana was still above water, and appar- 
ently as immovable as the Carolina had been. Upon 
her the British guns were immediately turned. To avail 
himself of a light breeze, or intimation of a breeze, 
from the east. Lieutenant Thompson spread all his sails. 
But against that steady, strong, deep current it availed 
not even to slacken the ship's cable. Red-hot balls fell 
hissing into the water about her, and a shell burst upon 
her deck, wounding six of the crew. " Man the boats ! " 
cried the commander. A hundred men were soon tug- 
ging at the oars, struggling as for more than life to tow 
the ship up the stream. She moved; the cable slack- 
ened and was let go ; still she moved slowly, steadily, 
and ere long was safe out of the deadly tempest, at 
anchor under the western shore opposite the American 
lines. 

Then cheer upon cheer saluted the rescued ship. 
The English soldiers heard the cheers as they were 
" falling in " three miles below. Every trace of discour- 
agement was gone from both armies. The British now 
formed upon the open plain without let or hindrance. 
The Americans could coolly estimate the success of the 
cannonade at its proper value. They had lost just one 
available gun and saved a ship which, at one broadside, 
could throw eight twelve-pound balls a mile and a half. 
That was the result of a cannonade for which the British 
army had toiled and waited a day and two nights. 

If the English had directed their fire first upon the 
Louisiana, they could have destroyed both vessels. How 
astonishing that any man standing where General Pa- 
kenham stood that morning could have failed to perceive 



SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 185 

a fact so obvious ! The Louisiana had only to go a mile 
up the river to be out of danger. Half a mile made her 
comparatively safe. The Carolina was fully two miles 
below the point of safety. The half hour expended 
upon the schooner would have blown up the ship, and 
then at their leisure they could have played upon the 
smaller vessel. And even if Captain Henly had slipped 
his cable and dropped down the stream past the Brit- 
ish camp, the vessel would have been as effectually 
removed as she was when her burning fragments float- 
ed by. 

The 27th was a busy day in the American lines. 
They were still far from complete, and every man now 
felt that their strength would soon be put to the test. 
In the course of the day a twelve-pound howitzer was 
placed in position so as to command the high-road. 
In the evening a twenty-four was established farther to 
the left, and early next morning another twenty-four. 
The crew of the Carolina hurried round to the lines to 
assist in serving these guns, and on the morrow the 
Baratarians were coming down from Fort St. Johns to 
lend a powerful hand. The two regiments of Louisiana 
militia were added to the force behind the lines. All 
day long the shovel and the spade are vigorously plied ; 
the embankment rises ; the canal deepens. The lines 
nearest the river are strongest and best protected, and, 
besides, are concealed from the view of an approaching 
foe by the buildings of the Chalmette plantation, a quar- 
ter of a mile below them. These buildings, which have 
served hitherto as the quarters of Hinds's dragoons, will 
protect the enemy more than they protect us, thinks the 
general, and orders them to be fired when the enemy 
advances. It proved to be a mistake, and the order, 
luckily, was only executed in part. Far to the left, near 
the cypress swamp, the lines are weakest, though there 



Ig5 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Coffee's Tennesseeans had worked as Coffee's Tennes- 
seeans could work to make them strong. 

The morning of the 28th of December was one of 
those perfect mornings of the Southern winter to enjoy 
which it is almost worth while to live twenty degrees too 
near the tropic of Cancer — balmy, yet bracing; brilliant, 
but soft ; inviting to action, though rendering mere ex- 
istence happiness enough. The golden mist that her- 
alded the sun soon wreathed itself away and vanished 
into space, except that part of it which hung in glitter- 
ing diamonds upon the herbage and the evergreens that 
encircled the stubble-covered plain. The monarch of 
the day shone out with that brightness that neither daz- 
zles nor consumes, but is beautiful and cheering merely. 
Gone and forgotten now were the lowering clouds, the 
penetrating fogs, the disheartening rains that for so 
many days and dreary, fearful nights had hung ov^r the 
dark delta. The river was flowing gold. " The trees," 
we are told, *'were melodious with the noisy strains of 
the ricebird, and the bold falsetto of that pride of South- 
ern ornithology, the mocking-bird, who here alone con- 
tinues the whole year round his unceasing notes of 
exultant mockery and vocal defiance." 

Music more noisy and more defiant salutes the rising 
sun — the rolling drum and ringing bugle, namely, that 
call twelve thousand hostile men to arms. This glorious 
morning General Pakenham is resolved to have at least 
one good look at the wary and active foe that for five 
days has given pause to the invading army, and has not 
yet been so much as seen by them. With his whole 
force he will march boldly up to the lines, and, if for- 
tune favors and the prospect pleases, he will leap over 
them into New Orleans and the House of Lords. A 
grand reconnoissance is the order of the day. 

The American general has not used his telescope in 



SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 187 

vain ; he is perfectly aware that an early advance is in- 
tended. Five pieces of cannon he has in position. The 
crew of the Carolina, under Lieutenant Crawley and 
Lieutenant Norris, Captain Humphrey and his artillery- 
men, are ready to serve them. Before the sun was an 
hour on his way, Jackson's anxious glances toward the 
city had been changed into expressions of satisfaction 
and confidence by the spectacle of several straggling 
bands of red-shirted, bewhiskered, rough and desperate- 
looking men, all begrimed with smoke and mud, hurry- 
ing down the road toward the lines. These proved to be 
the Baratarians under Dominique You and Bluche, who 
had run all the way from the Fort St. John, where they 
had been stationed since their release from prison. They 
immediately took charge of one of the twenty-four- 
pounders. And, what is of far more importance, the 
Louisiana, saved yesterday by the resolution and skill 
of Lieutenant Thompson, is ready at a moment's warn- 
ing to let out cable and swing round so as to throw her 
balls obliquely across the plain. And all this is hidden 
from the foemen, who will know nothing of what awaits 
them till they have passed the plantation houses of 
Chalmette and Bienvenu, only five hundred yards from 
the lines ! 

General Jackson was not kept long in suspense. The 
spectacle of the British advance was splendid in the ex- 
treme. " Forward they came," says the author of ' Jack- 
son and New Orleans,' " in solid columns, as compact 
and orderly as if on parade, under cover of a shower 
of rockets and a continual fire from their artillery in 
front and their batteries on the levee. It was certainly 
a bold and imposing demonstration, for such, as we are 
told by British officers, it was intended to be. To new 
soldiers like the Americans, fresh from civic and peace- 
ful pursuits, who had never witnessed any scenes of real 



l38 GENERAL JACKSON. 

warfare, it was certainly a formidable display of military 
power and discipline. Those veterans moved as steadily 
and closely together as if marching in review instead of 
*in the cannon's mouth.' Their muskets, catching the 
rays of the morning sun, nearly blinded the beholder 
with their brightness, while their gay and various uni- 
forms, red, gray, green, and tartan, afforded a pleas- 
ing relief to the winter-clad field and the sombre objects 
around." 

Thus appeared the British host to the gazing multi- 
tude behind the American lines ; for the author of the 
passage quoted learned his story from the lips of men 
who saw the sight. The British " Subaltern " tells us 
how the American lines looked to the advancing army, 
and what reception greeted it: ^'Moving on in merry 
mood, we advanced about four or five miles without the 
smallest check or hindrance, when at length we found 
ourselves in view of the enemy's army, posted in a very 
advantageous manner. About forty yards in their front 
was a canal, which extended from the morass to within 
a short distance of the high-road. Along their line were 
thrown up breastworks, not indeed completed, but even 
now formidable. Upon the road, and at several other 
points, were erected powerful batteries ; while the ship, 
with a large flotilla of gunboats [no, sir — no gunboats], 
flanked the whole position from the river. 

" When I say that we came in sight of the enemy, I 
do not mean that he was gradually exposed to us in such 
a manner as to leave time for cool examination and re- 
flection. On the right, indeed, he was seen for some 
time; but on the left, a few houses built at a turning in 
the road entirely concealed him ; nor was it till they had 
gained that turning, and beheld the muzzles of his guns 
pointed toward them, that those who moved in this 
direction were aware of their proximity to danger. But 



SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 



189 



that danger was indeed near, they were quickly taught ; 
for scarcely had the head of the column passed the 
houses, when a deadly fire was opened from both the 
battery and the shipping. That the Americans are ex- 
cellent marksmen, as well with artillery as with rifles, we 
have had frequent cause to acknowledge; but perhaps 
on no occasion did they assert their claim to the title of 
good artillerymen more effectually than on the present. 
Scarce a ball passed over or fell short of its mark, but 
all striking full into the midst of our ranks occasioned 
terrible havoc. The shrieks of the wounded, therefore, 
the crash of firelocks, and the fall of such as were 
killed, caused at first some little confusion ; and what 
added to the panic was, that from the houses beside 
which we stood bright flames suddenly burst out. The 
Americans, expecting this attack, had filled them with 
combustibles for the purpose, and directing against them 
one or two guns loaded with red-hot shot, in an instant 
set them on fire. The scene was altogether very sub- 
lime. A tremendous cannonade mowed down our ranks 
and deafened us with its roar, while two large cha- 
teaux and their out-buildings almost scorched us with 
the flames, and blinded us with the smoke which they 
emitted. 

" The infantry, however, were not long suffered to 
remain thus exposed, but, being ordered to quit the 
path and to form line in the fields, the artillery was 
brought up and opposed to that of the enemy. But the 
contest was in every respect unequal, since their artillery 
far exceeded ours both in numerical strength and weight 
of metal. The consequence was that in half an hour 
two of our field-pieces and one field mortar were dis- 
mounted ; many of the gunners were killed ; and the 
rest, after an ineffectual attempt to silence the fire of 
the shipping, were obliged to retire. 



jQO GENERAL JACKSON. 

" In the meantime the infantry, having formed line, 
advanced under a heavy discharge of round and grape 
shot, till they were checked by the appearance of the 
canal. Of its depth they were of course ignorant, and 
to attempt its passage without having ascertained 
whether it could be forded might have been productive 
of fatal consequences. A halt was accordingly ordered, 
and the men were commanded to shelter themselves as 
well as they could from the enemy's fire. For this pur- 
pose they were hurried into a wet ditch, of sufficient 
depth to cover the knees, where, leanmg forward, they 
concealed themselves behind some high rushes which 
grew upon its brink, and thus escaped many bullets 
which fell around them in all directions. 

" Thus fared it with the left of the army, while the 
right, though less exposed to the cannonade, was not 
more successful in its object. The same impediment 
which checked one column forced the other likewise to 
pause, and, after having driven in an advanced body of 
the enemy and endeavored without effect to penetrate 
through the marsh, it also was commanded to halt. In 
a word, all thought of attacking was for this day aban- 
doned, and it now only remained to withdraw the troops 
from their present perilous situation with as little loss 
as possible. 

" The first thing to be done was to remove the dis- 
mounted guns. Upon this enterprise a party of seamen 
was employed, who, running forward to the spot where 
they lay, lifted them, in spite of the whole of the enemy's 
fire, and bore them off in triumph. As soon as this was 
effected, regiment after regiment stole away — not in a 
body, but one by one — under the same discharge which 
saluted their approach. But a retreat thus conducted 
necessarily occupied much time. Noon had therefore 
long passed before the last corps was brought off, and 



SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 



[91 



when we again began to muster twilight was approach- 
ing." 

What a day for the heroes of the Peninsula and the 
stately Ninety-third Highlanders ! — lying low in wet 
ditches, some of them for seven hours, under that re- 
lentless cannonade, and then slinking away behind 
fences, huts, and burning houses, or even crawling 
along on the bottom of ditches, happy to get beyond 
the reach of those rebounding balls, that " knocked 
down the soldiers," says Captain Cooke, " and tossed 
them into the air like old bags." And what a day for 
General Jackson and his four thousand, who saw the 
.magnificent advance of the morning, not without mis- 
givings, and then beheld the most splendid and impos- 
ing army they had ever seen sink, as it were, into the 
earth and vanish from their sight ! This reconnoissance 
cost General Pakenham a loss of fifty killed and wounded. 
The casualties on the American side were nine killed and 
eight wounded. 



CHAPTER XV. 

SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 

General Pakenham had seen the American lines. 
The inference he drew from the sight was that the way 
to carry the American position was to make regular ap- 
proaches to it, as to a walled and fortified city. 

During the last three days of the year 1814 the 
British army remained inactive on the plain, two miles 
below the American lines and in full view of them, 
while the sailors were employed in bringing from the 
fleet thirty pieces of cannon of large caliber, with which 
to execute the scheme that had been resolved upon. By 
the evening of the 31st of December the thirty pieces of 
cannon from the fleet (twenty long eighteens and ten 
twenty-fours) had reached the British camp. All that 
day the Americans had been amused with a cannonade 
from a battery erected near the swamp, under cover of 
which parties of English troops attempted, but with 
small success, to reconnoiter the American position. As 
soon as it was quite dark operations of far greater im- 
portance commenced. " One half the army," says a 
British oflicer, *' was ordered out and marched to the 
front, passing the pickets, and halting about three 
hundred yards from the enemy's line. Here it was re- 
solved to throw up a chain of works; and here the 
greater part of this detachment, laying down their fire- 
locks, applied themselves vigorously to their tasks, 
while the rest stood armed and prepared for their de- 



SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 193 

fense. The night was dark, and our people maintained 
a profound silence; by which means not an idea of what 
was going on existed in the American camp. As we 
labored, too, with all diligence, six batteries were com- 
pleted long before dawn, in which were mounted thirty 
pieces of heavy cannon ; when, falling back a little way, 
we united ourselves to the remainder of the infantry, 
and lay down behind the rushes in readiness to act as 
soon as we should be wanted." 

The second Sunday of this strange mutual siege had 
come round. The light of another New-Year's day 
dawned upon the world. 

The English soldiers had not worked so silently dur- 
ing the night upon their new batteries but that an occa- 
sional sound of hammering, dulled by distance, had been 
heard in the American lines. The outposts, too, had sent 
in news of the advance of British troops, who were busy 
at something, though the outposts could not say what. 
The veterans of the American army — that is, those who 
had smelt gunpowder before this campaign — gave it as 
their opinion that there would be warm work again at 
daybreak. 

Long before the dawn the dull hammering ceased. 
When the day broke, a fog, so dense that a man could 
discern nothing at a distance of twenty yards, covered 
all the plain. Not a sound was heard in the direction 
of the enemy's camp, nor did the American sentinels 
nearest their position hear or see anything to excite 
alarm. At eight o'clock the fog was still impenetrable, 
and the silence unbroken. As late even as nine the 
American troops, who were on slightly higher ground 
than the British, saw little prospect of the fog breaking 
away, still less of any hostile movement on the part of 
the foe. The veterans begin to retract their opinion. 
We are to have another day of waiting, think the younger 



jg. GENERAL JACKSON. 

soldiers, the gay Creoles not forgetting that the day was 
the first of a new year. 

The general, conceding something to the pleasure- 
loving part of his army, permitted a brief respite from 
the arduous toil of the week, and ordered a grand review 
of the whole army, on the open ground between the 
lines and his own headquarters. To-day, too, for the 
first time in several days, the Louisiana remained at her 
safe anchorage above the lines, and a large number of 
her crew went ashore on the western bank and took 
post in Commodore Patterson's new battery there. But 
this was not for holiday reasons. A deserter came in 
the night before and informed the commodore that the 
enemy had established two enormous howitzers in a 
battery on the levee, where balls were kept red hot for 
the purpose of firing the obnoxious vessel the moment 
she should come within range again. So the commo- 
dore kept his vessel safe, landed two more of her great 
guns, and ordered ashore men enough to work them. 

Toward ten o'clock the fog rose from the American 
position and disclosed to the impatient enemy the scene 
behind the lines. A gay and brilliant scene it was, 
framed and curtained in fog. " The fog dispersed," re- 
marks Captain Hill, "with a rapidity perfectly surprising; 
the change of scene at a theatre could scarcely be more 
sudden, and the bright sun shone forth, diffusing warmth 
and gladness." " Being at this time," says the Subaltern, 
" only three hundred yards distant, we could perceive all 
that was going forward with great exactness. The dif- 
ferent regiments were upon parade, and, being dressed 
in holiday suits, presented really a fine appearance. 
Mounted officers were riding backward and forward 
through the ranks, bands were playing, and colors float- 
ing in the air — in a word, all seemed jollity and gala.'* 
The general in chief had not yet appeared upon the 



SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 



195 



ground. He had been up and doing before the dawn, 
and was now lying on a couch at headquarters, before 
riding out to review the troops. 

In a moment how changed the scene ! At a signal 
from the central battery of the enemy, the whole of 
their thirty pieces of cannon opened fire full upon the 
American lines, and the air was filled with the red glare 
and hideous scream of hundreds of Congreve rockets! 
As completely taken by surprise as the enemy had been 
on the night of the 23d, the troops were thrown into 
instantaneous confusion. " The ranks were broken," 
continues the Subaltern, " the different corps, dispersing, 
fled in all directions, while the utmost terror and dis- 
order appeared to prevail. Instead of nicely dressed lines, 
nothing but confused crowds could now be observed ; 
nor was it without much difficulty that order w^as finally 
restored. Oh, that we had charged at that instant ! " 

The enemy, having learned which house was the 
headquarters of the general, directed a prodigious fire 
upon it, and the first news of the cannonade came to 
Jackson in the sound of crashing porticoes and out- 
buildings. During the first ten minutes of the fire one 
hundred balls struck the mansion, but, though some of 
the general's suite were covered with rubbish, and Colo- 
nel Butler was knocked down, they all escaped and made 
their way to the lines without a scratch. 

The Subaltern is mistaken in saying that the troops 
fled in all directions. There was but one direction in 
which to fly either to safety or to duty ; for, on that occa- 
sion, the post of duty and the post of safety were the 
same, namely, close behind the line of defense. For ten 
minutes, however, the American batteries, always before 
so prompt with their responsive thunder, were silent, 
while the troops were running in haste to their several 
posts. 



Iq5 general JACKSON. 

Ten guns were in position in the American lines, be- 
sides those in the battery on the other side of the river. 
Upon Jackson's coming to the front, he found his artil- 
lerymen at their posts, waiting with lighted matches to 
open fire upon the foe as soon as the dense masses of 
mingled smoke and mist that enveloped their batteries 
should roll away. " Jackson's first glance," as Mr. 
Walker informs us, " when he reached the line, was in 
the direction of Humphrey's battery. There stood this 
right arm of the artillery, dressed in his usual plain 
attire, smoking that eternal cigar, coolly leveling his 
guns and directing his men. 

" * Ah ! ' exclaimed the genecal, * all is right. Hum- 
phrey is at his post, and will return their compliments 
presently.' 

" Then, accompanied by his aides, he walked down 
to the left, stopping at each battery to inspect its condi- 
tion, and waving his cap to the men as they gave him 
three cheers, and observing to the soldiers: 

"* Don't mind those rockets; they are mere toys to 
amuse children.' " 

Captain Humphrey soon caught a glimpse of the 
British batteries — structures of narrow front and slight 
elevation, lying low and dim upon the field; no such 
broad target as the mile-long lines of the American 
position. Adjusting a twelve-pounder with the utmost 
exactness, he quietly gave the word, and the firing 
from the American lines began. The other batteries 
instantly joined in the strife. The British howitzers on 
the levee and the battery of Commodore Patterson on 
the opposite bank exchanged a vigorous fire. For the 
space of an hour and a half a cannonade so loud and rapid 
shook the delta as had never before been heard in the 
Western world. Imagine fifty pieces of cannon, of large 
caliber for that day, each discharged from once to thrice 



SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 



197 



a minute; often a simultaneous discharge of half a 
dozen pieces ; an average of two discharges every 
second ; while plain and river were so densely covered 
with smoke that the gunners aimed their guns from 
recollection chiefly, and knew scarcely anything of the 
effect of their fire. 

Well aimed, however, were the British guns, as the 
American lines soon began to exhibit. Most of their 
balls buried themselves harmlessly in the soft, elastic 
earth of the thick embankment. Many flew over its 
summit and did bloody execution on those who were 
bringing up ammunition, as well as on some who were 
retiring from their posts. Several balls struck and near- 
ly sunk a boat laden with stores that was moored to the 
levee two hundred yards behind the lines. The cotton 
bales of the batteries nearest the river were knocked 
about in all directions, and set on fire, adding fresh vol- 
umes to the already impenetrable smoke. One of 
Major Planche's men was wounded in trying to extin- 
guish this most annoying fire. A thirty-two-pounder in 
Lieutenant Crawley's battery was hit and damaged. 
The carriage of a twenty-four was broken. One of the 
twelves was silenced. Two powder-carriages, one con- 
taining a hundred pounds of the explosive material, blew 
up with a report so terrific as to silence for a moment 
the enemy's fire and draw from them a faint cheer. 
And still the lines continued to vomit forth a fire that 
knew neither cessation nor pause, until the guns grew so 
hot that it was dif^cult and dangerous to load them. 
And after an hour and a half of such work as this no 
man in Jackson's army could say with certainty whether 
the English batteries had been seriously damaged. 

It was nearly noon when it began to be perceived 
that the British fire was slackening. The American 
batteries were then ordered to cease firing, for the guns 
14 



Iq3 general JACKSON. 

to cool and the smoke to roll away. What a scene 
greeted the anxious gaze of the troops when at length 
the British position was disclosed ! Those formidable 
batteries, which had excited such consternation an hour 
and a half before, were totally destroyed, and presented 
but formless masses of soil and broken guns, while the 
sailors who had manned them were seen running from 
them to the rear ; and the army that had been drawn Up 
behind the batteries, ready to storm the lines as soon 
as a breach had been made in them, had agam ignomin- 
iously *^ taken to the ditch." 

Those hogsheads of sugar were the fatal mistake of 
the English engineers. They afforded absolutely no 
protection against the fire of the American batteries, the 
balls going straight through them and killing men in 
the very center of the works. Hence it was that in 
little more than an hour the batteries were heaps of 
ruins, and the guns dismantled, broken, and immovable. 
The howitzers, too, on the levee, after waging an active 
duel with Commodore Patterson on the other side of the 
river, were silenced and overthrown by a few discharges 
from Captain Humphrey's twelve-pounders. Nothing 
remained for the discomfited army but to make the best 
of their way to their old position, and so incessant was 
the American fire during the afternoon that it was only 
when night came that all the army succeeded in with- 
drawing. 

The British loss on the ist of January was about 
thirty killed and forty wounded ; the Americans, eleven 
killed and twenty-three wounded. Most of the American 
slain were not engaged in the battle, but were struck 
down a considerable distance behind the lines while they 
were looking on as mere spectators. 

The cotton error w^as quickly repaired. Every bale 
of that delusive material was removed from the works 



SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 



199 



and its place supplied with the black and spongy soil of 
the delta, which the Sunday cannonade had shown to 
be a perfect defense, the balls sinking into it out of 
sight without shaking the embankment. The lines were 
strengthened in every part and new cannon mounted 
upon them. Work was continued upon the second line, 
a mile and a half in the rear. Even a third line of 
defense was marked out and begun, still nearer the 
city. On the opposite bank of the river the old works 
were repaired and strengthened, and new ones com- 
menced. 

What the enemy would attempt next, was a mystery 
which General Jackson anxiously revolved in his mind 
and strove in all ways to penetrate. Monday, Tuesday, 
Wednesday, Thursday passed away, and still the hostile 
army made no movement which gave the American gen- 
eral a clew to their design, if design they had. Strong 
men and weak men, good men and men less good, are 
all alike liable to the error of judging others by them- 
selves. During these days, therefore, Jackson inclined 
to the opinion that his lines would not again be attacked, 
and so wrote to the Secretary of War. While apparently 
bending all his energies to the sole object of strengthen- 
ing his position, his mind was racked with fear of being 
surprised in another quarter. How natural such an 
idea! If thirty pieces of cannon could not penetrate 
the lines, what could? If, on the ist of January, the 
American position was found impregnable, could it be 
deemed less so after three thousand men had worked 
upon it for nearly a week ? Two attempts having sig- 
nally and ignominiously failed, would any general risk 
his army and his reputation upon a third ? 

On Wednesday morning, January 4th, the long- 
looked for Kentuckians, twenty-two hundred and fifty 
in number, reached New Orleans. Seldom has a re- 



200 GENERAL JACKSON. 

enforcement been so anxiously expected ; never did 
the arrival of one create keener disappointment. They 
were so ragged that the men, as they marched shivering 
through the streets, were observed to hold together their 
garments with their hands to cover their nakedness; 
and, what was far worse, because beyond remedy, not 
one man in ten was well armed, and only one man in 
three had any arms at all. It was a bitter moment for 
General Jackson when he heard this, and it was a bitter 
thing for those brave and devoted men, who had fondly 
hoped to find in the abundance of New Orleans an end of 
their exposure and destitution, to learn that the general 
had not a musket, a blanket, a tent, a garment, a rag, to 
give them. A body of Louisiana militia, too, who had 
arrived a day or two before from Baton Rouge, were in 
a condition only a little less deplorable. Here was a 
force of nearly three thousand men, every man of whom 
was pressingly wanted, paralyzed and useless from want 
of those arms that had been sent on their way down the 
river sixty days before. It would have fared ill, I fear, 
with the captain of that loitering boat if he had chanced 
to arrive just then, for the general was wroth exceed- 
ingly. Up the river go new expresses to bring him down 
in irons. They bring him at last, the astonished man, 
but days and days too late. The old soldiers of this 
campaign mention that the general's observations upon 
the character of the hapless captain, his parentage, and 
upon various portions of his mortal and immortal frame, 
were much too forcible for repetition in print. 

The Legislature of Louisiana and the people of New 
Orleans behaved on this occasion with prompt and noble 
generosity. Major Latour records what was done by 
them and by the people for the relief of the destitute 
soldiers: ''Within one week twelve hundred blanket 
cloaks, two hundred and seventy-five waistcoats, eleven 



SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 201 

hundred and twenty-seven pairs of pantaloons, eight 
hundred shirts, four hundred and ten pairs of shoes, and 
a great number of mattresses were made up, or purchased 
ready made, and distributed among our brethren in arms 
who stood in the greatest need of them." 

The enemy, meanwhile, had recovered their spirits 
and increased their numbers. Two regiments, the Sev- 
enth and Forty-third Infantry, numbering together seven- 
teen hundred, under General John Lambert, had arrived 
from England, infusing new life into the disheartened 
army, and raising its force to seven thousand three 
hundred men. General Pakenham had formed a bold 
and soldierlike design, for the execution of which the 
whole army was preparing, and the camp was alive with 
expectation. The *' chained dog" would at length get 
at his enemy and growl no more. " The new scheme," 
says the Subaltern, "was worthy, for its boldness, of 
the school in which Sir Edward had studied his profes- 
sion. It was determined to divide the army : to send 
part across the river, who should seize the enemy's 
guns and turn them on themselves, while the remainder 
should at the same time make a general assault along 
the whole intrenchment. But before this plan could be 
put into execution it would be necessary to cut a canal 
across the entire neck of land from the Bayou de Cati- 
line to the river, of sufficient width and depth to admit 
of boats being brought up from the lake. Upon this 
arduous undertaking were the troops immediately em- 
ployed. Being divided into four companies, they labored 
by turns, day and night; one party relieving another 
after a stated number of hours, in such order as that the 
work should never be entirely deserted. The fatigue 
undergone during the prosecution of this attempt no 
words can sufficiently describe ; yet it was pursued with- 
out repining, and at length, by unremitting exertions, 



202 GENERAL JACKSON. 

they succeeded in effecting their purpose by the 6th of 
January. 

The lines, then, were to be stormed! The vital 
clause of the scheme was that which contemplated the 
carrying of the works on the western bank first, and the 
turning of Commodore Patterson's great guns upon the 
back of Jackson's lines. Let that be done, and the lines 
are untenable and will require little storming. If that 
is not done, or not done in time, the storming of the 
lines will be a piece of work such as British soldiers 
have seldom attempted. The naked bodies of the 
troops will have to encounter that before which sugar 
hogsheads and earthworks crumbled to pieces in an 
hour ! 

It was not till Friday evening, the 6th of the new 
year, that General Jackson began to so much as suspect 
the enemy's design. On that day Sailing-Master John- 
son, who was posted at the Chef-Menteur, seeing a small 
English brig on her way from the fleet to the Bienvenu, 
laden, as he supposed, with supplies for the British army, 
darted out upon her with three boats and captured her 
and ten prisoners. From these prisoners the American 
general learned one important fact — that the enemy was 
deepening and prolonging a canal across the plain. 
Then their plan began to dawn upon Jackson's mind. 
Early the next morning Commodore Patterson walked 
behind the levee of the western bank to a point directly 
opposite the British position, and spent several hours 
there in watching their movements. Upon his return 
the general no longer doubted that in a very few days 
or hours he would have to resist a simultaneous attack 
on both sides of the river. The bustle in the enemy's 
camp, and the forward state of their preparations, indi- 
cated that ere the sun of another Sunday had appeared 
above the horizon they might be upon him. 



SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 



203 



On Saturday afternoon Jackson was much at his 
high window at headquarters observmg the enemy's 
movements. He had done what he (jjould do to prepare 
for them, and little then remained but to await the 
result. He had been showing the lines to his old friend 
General Adair, of Kentucky, and asking his opinion of 
them. 

"Well," said Jackson to Adair, after they had gone 
the rounds, " what do you think of our situation ? Can 
we defend these works, or not ? " 

"There is one way," replied the Kentuckian, " and 
but one way, in which we can hope to defend them. We 
must have a strong corps of reserve to meet the 
enemy's main attack, wherever it may be. No single 
part of the lines," continued Adair, " is strong enough 
to resist the united force of the enemy. But with a 
strong column held in our rear, ready to advance upon 
^ny threatened point, we can beat them off." 

This was an important suggestion. Jackson adopted 
General Adair's idea. "He agreed," says Adair, "that 
I should act with the Kentuckians as a reserve corps, 
and directed me to select my own ground for en- 
campment, to govern my men as I thought most 
proper, and that 1 would receive no orders but from 
himself." 

And off to town gallops Adair on the general's own 
white horse, to prevail on the veteran guard to lend him 
some of their muskets for three days only; so that he 
was able to employ several hundreds of his troops in 
that important service. 

Such was the position of affairs on Jackson's side of 
the river. On the western bank the prospect was less 
promising. Commodore Patterson was there, and he 
had spent the week in arduous labor ; but all his exer- 
tions had been directed toward the annoyance of the 



204 GENERAL JACKSON. 

enemy on the other side of the river, not to the defense 
of his own position. As late as Wednesday morning 
nothing had been done to prepare for an attack on the 
western bank. " During the 2d and 3d," wrote Commo- 
dore Patterson to the Secretary of the Navy, " I landed 
from the ship and mounted, as the former ones, on the 
banks of the river, four more twelve-pounders, and 
erected a furnace for heating shot, to destroy a number 
of buildings which intervened between General Jack- 
son's lines and the camp of the enemy, and occupied by 
him. On the evening of the 4th I succeeded in firing 
a number of them and some rice-stacks by my hot shot, 
which the enemy attempted to extinguish notwith- 
standing the heavy fire I kept up, but which at length 
compelled them to desist. On the 6th and 7th I erected 
another furnace, and mounted on the banks of the river 
two more twenty-four pounders, which had been brought 
up from the English Turn by the exertions of Colonel 
Caldwell, of the drafted militia of this State, and brought 
within and mounted on the intrenchments on this side 
the river one twelve-pounder. In addition to which, 
General Morgan, commanding the militia on this side, 
planted two brass six-pound field-pieces in his lines, 
which were incomplete, having been commenced only on 
the 4th. These three pieces were the only cannon on 
the lines. All the others, being mounted on the bank 
of the river, with a view to aid the right of General 
Jackson's lines on the opposite shore, and to flank the 
enemy should they attempt to march up the road lead- 
ing along the levee, or erect batteries on the same, of 
course could render no aid in defense of General Mor- 
gan's lines. My battery was manned in part from the 
crew of the ship and in part by militia detailed for 
that service by General Morgan, as I had not seamen 
enough to fully man them." 



SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 



205 



On Saturday afternoon, upon Commodore Patterson's 
reporting to General Jackson what he had observed at 
the enemy's camp, it was determined to send over the 
river, to re-enforce General Morgan, a body of Kentuck- 
ians. Colonel Davis and four hundred of those troops 
were detailed for that purpose. At seven o'clock in the 
evening, after a day of hard duty, during which they 
had only once broken their fast. Colonel Davis and his 
men marched from the lines toward New Orleans, where 
they were to receive their arms and cross the river by 
the ferry. At the city it was found that only two hun- 
dred muskets, and those old and defective, could be pro- 
cured. Only two hundred men, therefore, crossed the 
river. It was two o'clock before they reached the west- 
ern shore. Fatigued, hungry, and chilled to the bone 
with long waiting, they formed upon the levee, and set 
out for General Morgan's position. Over a road miry 
from the recent rains, walking sometimes knee-deep in 
mud and water, the Kentuckians made their way, and 
reached Morgan's soon after four o'clock in the morn- 
ing, as unfit for any duty involving danger and exertion 
as can be imagined. 

Even with this re-enforcement General Morgan's 
command amounted to no more than eight hundred and 
twelve men, all militia, all badly armed, posted behind 
works upon which four hundred men had labored for 
three days. Jackson should have spared a few com- 
panies of regulars for this side of the river, which had 
suddenly become so important; although, for his own 
lines, he had but three thousand two hundred men, 
against an army which he supposed to consist of twelve 
thousand disciplined troops. With another day of prepa- 
ration and clear insight into the enemy's design he 
would have done something effectual for the western 
bank. It was too late then. The days of preparation 



2o6 GENERAL JACKSON. 

were numbered — were passed. Fare with him as it 
might to-morrow, he could do no more. 

Nolte tells us that Commodore Patterson, on his way 
from headquarters to his post on the other side of the 
river, said to him as he passed, " I expect you will see 
some fun between this and to-morrow." Nolte adds 
that only himself and a few others knew what was ex- 
pected. But when, soon after dark, the noise of prepa- 
ration in the British camp grew louder and came nearer, 
there could not have been much doubt in the lines that 
another most unquiet Sunday was in reserve for them. 
There was much silent preparation in Jackson's camp ; 
a cleaning of arms, a counting out of cartridges and 
adjustment of flints, and a careful loading of muskets 
and rifles. Beside the thirty-two-pounder was heaped 
up a bushel or two of musket balls and fragments of 
iron, enough to fill the piece up to the muzzle, and 
which will fill it up to the muzzle if the enemy come to 
close quarters. Jackson walks slowly along the lines 
just before dark. He wears the look of a man whose 
mind is wholly made up, and who clearly knows what he 
will do in any and every case. He stops occasionally 
to see that the stacked muskets are all loaded, and says 
to Blanche's men, as he goes along their part of the 
lines, " Don't fire till you can see the whites of their 
eyes ; and if you want to sleep, sleep upon your arms." 

Mishap befell the party of British under Colonel 
Thornton, who were detailed for the attack on the west- 
ern bank. The water, owing to the fall of the river, 
was so low in the canal that it was not until eight hours 
after the appointed time of embarking that enough boats 
were launched into the Mississippi to convey across one 
third of the designated force. Instead of fourteen hun- 
dred men, only four hundred and ninety-eight went over. 
Instead of embarking immediately after dark, it was 



SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 



207 



nearly daybreak before they reached the opposite bank. 
Instead of landing directly opposite the British position, 
the swift, deceptive current swept them down a mile and 
a half below it. But this little band, thus balked and 
delayed, was led by a soldier, Colonel W. Thornton, the 
most daring and efficient man in the British army. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE 8th of JANUARY. 

At one o'clock on the morning of this memorable 
day, on a couch in a room of the McCarty mansion- 
house, General Jackson lay asleep in his worn uniform. 
Several of his aides slept upon the floor in the same 
apartment, all equipped for the field. A sentinel paced 
the adjacent passage. Sentinels moved noiselessly 
about the building, which loomed up large, dim, and 
silent in the foggy night, among the darkening trees. 
Most of those who slept at all that night were still 
asleep, and there was as yet little stir in either camp to 
disturb their slumbers. 

Commodore Patterson was not among the sleepers. 
Soon after dark, accompanied by his faithful aide. Shep- 
herd, he again took his position on the western bank of 
the river, directly opposite to where Colonel Thornton 
was struggling to launch his boats into the stream, and 
there he watched and listened till nearly midnight. He 
could hear almost everything that passed, and could see 
by the light of the camp fires a line of red-coats drawn 
up along the levee. He heard the cries of the tugging 
sailors as they drew the boats along the shallow, caving 
canal, and their shouts of satisfaction as each boat was 
launched with a loud splash into the Mississippi. From 
the great commotion, and the sound of so many voices, 
he began to surmise that the main body of the enemy 
were about to cross, and that the day was to be lost or 



THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 209 

won on his side of the river. There was terror in the 
thought, and wisdom too ; and, if General Pakenham 
had known all that we now know, the commodore's sur- 
mise would have been correct. Patterson's first thought 
was to drop the ship Louisiana down upon them. But 
no; the Louisiana had been stripped of half her guns 
and all her men, and had on board, above water, hun- 
dreds of pounds of powder, for she was then serving as 
powder-magazine to the western bank. To man the 
ship, moreover, would involve the withdrawal of all the 
men from the river batteries, which, if the main attack 
were on Jackson's side of the river, would be of such 
vital importance to him. 

Revolving such thoughts in his anxious mind. Com- 
modore Patterson hastened back to his post, agam ob- 
serving and lamenting the weakness of General Morgan's 
line of defense. All that he could do m the circum- 
stances was to dispatch Mr. Shepherd across the river 
to inform General Jackson of what they had seen and 
what they feared, and to beg an immediate re-enforce- 
ment. Informing the captain of the guard that he had 
important intelligence to communicate, Shepherd was 
conducted to the room in which the general was sleeping. 

"Who's there?" asked Jackson, raising his head as 
the door opened. 

Mr. Shepherd gave his name and stated his errand, 
adding that General Morgan agreed with Commodore 
Patterson in the opinion that more troops would be re- 
quired to defend the lines on the western bank. 

"Hurry back," replied the general, as he rose, "and 
tell General Morgan that he is mistaken. The main at- 
tack will be on this side, and I have no men to spare. 
He must maintain his position at all hazards." 

Shepherd recrossed the river with the general's an- 
swer, which could not have been very reassuring to 



2IO GENERAL JACKSON. 

Morgan and his inexperienced men, not a dozen of 
whom had ever been in action. 

Jackson looked at his watch, 

*' Gentlemen," said he to his dozing aides, "we have 
slept enough. Rise. I must go and see Coffee." 

The order was obeyed very promptly. Sword-belts 
were buckled, pistols resumed, and in a few minutes the 
party were ready to begin the business of the day. 
There was little for the American troops to do but to 
repair to their posts. By four o'clock in the morning, 
along the whole Ime of works, every man was in his place 
and everything was ready. A little later General Adair 
marched down the reserve of a thousand Kentuckians to 
the rear of General Carroll's position, and, halting them 
fifty yards from the works, went forward himself to join 
the line of men peering over the top of the embankment 
into the fog and darkness of the mornmg. The position 
of the reserve was fortunately chosen. It was almost 
directly behind that part of the lines which a deserter 
from Jackson's army had yesterday told General Paken- 
ham was their weakest point ! And the deserter was half 
right. He had deserted on Friday, before there had 
been any thought of the reserve, and he omitted to 
mention that Coffee and Carroll's men, over two thou- 
sand in number, were the best and coolest shots in the 
world. 

Not long after the hour when the American general 
had been roused from his couch. General Pakenham, 
who had slept an hour or two at the Villere mansion, 
also rose, and rode immediately to the bank of the river, 
where Thornton had just embarked his diminished force. 
He learned all that the reader knows of the delay and 
difficulty that had there occurred, and lingered long 
upon the spot listening for some sound that should indi- 
cate the whereabouts of Thornton. But no sound was 



THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 211 

heard, as the swift Mississippi had carried the boats far 
down out of hearing. Surely Pakenham must have 
known that the vital part of his plan was for that morn- 
ing frustrated. Surely he will hold back his troops from 
the assault until Thornton announces himself. The 
story goes that he had been irritated by a taunt of Ad- 
miral Cochrane, who had said that if the army could 
not take those mud-banks, defended by ragged militia, 
he would do it with two thousand sailors armed only 
with cutlasses and pistols. And, besides, Pakenham be- 
lieved that nothing could resist the calm and determined 
onset of the troops he led. He had no thought of wait- 
ing for Thornton, unless perhaps till daylight. 

Before four o'clock the British troops were up and in 
the several positions assigned them. 

What was the humor of the troops? As they stood 
there performing that most painful of all military 
duties, waitings there was much of the forced merriment 
with which young soldiers conceal from themselves the 
real nature of their feelings. But the older soldiers 
augured ill of the coming attack. Colonel Mullens, of 
the Forty-fourth, openly expressed his dissatisfaction. 
" My regiment," said he, " has been ordered to execu- 
tion. Their dead bodies are to be used as a bridge for 
the rest of the army to march over." 

And, what was worse, in the dense darkness of the 
morning he had gone by the redoubt where were de- 
posited the fascines and ladders, and marched his men 
to the head of the column without one of them. Whether 
this neglect was owing to accident or design concerns us 
not. For that and other military sins Mullens was after- 
ward cashiered. Colonel Dale, too, of the Ninety-third 
Highlanders, a man of far different quality from Colonel 
Mullens, was grave and depressed. 

"What do you think of it ? " asked the physician of 



212 GENERAL JACKSON. 

the regiment, when word was brought of Thornton's de- 
tention. 

Colonel Dale made no reply in words. Giving the 
doctor his watch and a letter, he simply said, " Give 
these to my wife ; I shall die at the head of my regi- 
ment." Soon after four. General Pakenham rode away 
from the bank of the river, saying to one of his aides, 
" I will wait my own plan no longer." 

He rode to the quarters of General Gibbs, who met 
him with another piece of ominous intelligence. *' The 
Forty-fourth," Gibbs said, " had not taken the fascines 
and ladders to the head of the column ; but he had sent 
an officer to cause the error to be rectified, and he was 
then expecting every moment a report from that regi- 
ment." General Pakenham instantly dispatched Major 
Sir John Tylden to ascertain whether the regiment could 
be got into position in time. Tylden found the Forty- 
fourth just moving off from the redoubt, '^'m a most ir- 
regular and unsoldierlike manner, with the fascines and 
ladders. I then returned," adds Tylden in his evidence, 
*' after some time, to Sir Edward Pakenham, and reported 
the circumstance to him ; stating that by the time which 
had elapsed since I left them they must have arrived at 
their situation in column." 

This was not half an hour before dawn. Without 
waiting to obtain absolute certainty upon a point so im- 
portant as the condition of the head of his main column 
of attack, the impetuous Pakenham commanded, to use 
the language of one of his own officers, " that the fatal, 
ever-fatal rocket should be discharged as a signal to 
begin the assault on the left." A few minutes later a 
second rocket whizzed aloft, the signal of attack on the 
right. 

Daylight struggled through the mist. Soon after six 
o'clock both columns were advancing at the steady, 



THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 213 

solid, British pace to the attack ; the Forty-fourth no- 
where, straggling in the rear with the fascines and lad- 
ders. The column soon came up with the American 
outposts, who at first retreated slowly before it, but 
soon quickened their pace and ran in, bearing their 
great news, and putting every man in the works in- 
tensely on the alert, each commander anxious for the 
honor of first getting a glimpse of the foe and opening 
fire upon him. 

Lieutenant Spotts, of battery number six, was the first 
man in the American lines who descried through the fog 
the dim red line of General Gibbs's advancing column, 
far away down the plain close to the forest. The thun- 
der of his great gun broke the stillness. Then there 
was silence again, for the shifting fog, or the altered 
position of the enemy, concealed him from view once 
more. The fog lifted again, and soon revealed both 
divisions, which with their detached companies seemed 
to cover two thirds of the plain, and gave the Americans 
a repetition of the military spectacle which they had 
witnessed on the 28th of December. Three cheers from 
Carroll's men. Three cheers from the Kentuckians be- 
hind them. Cheers continuous from the advancing col- 
umn, not heard yet in the American lines. 

Steadily and fast the column of General Gibbs 
marched toward batteries numbered six, seven, and 
eight, which played upon it at first with but occasional 
effect, often missing, sometimes throwing a ball right 
into its midst and causing it to reel and pause for a 
moment. Promptly were the gaps filled up ; bravely 
the column came on. As they neared the lines the 
well-aimed shot made more dreadful havoc, " cutting 
great lanes in the column from front to rear," and 
tossing men and parts of men aloft, or hurling them 
far on one side. At length, still steady and unbroken, 
15 



214 GENERAL JACKSON. 

they came within range of the small arms, the rifles 
of Carroll's Tennesseeans, the muskets of Adair's 
Kentuckians, four lines of sharpshooters, one behind 
the other. General Carroll, coolly waiting for the right 
moment, held his fire until the enemy were within two 
hundred yards, and then gave the word — '^ Fire ! " 

At first with a certain deliberation, afterward in 
haste, always with effect, the riflemen plied their terrible 
weapon. The summit of the embankment was a line of 
fire, except where the great guns showed their liquid, 
belching flash. The noise was peculiar and altogether 
indescribable — a rolling, bursting, echoing noise, never 
to be forgotten by a man that heard it. Along the whole 
line it blazed and rolled ; the British batteries shower- 
ing rockets over the scene ; Patterson's batteries on the 
other side of the river joining in the concert. 

The column of General Gibbs, mowed by the fire of 
the riflemen, still advanced, Gibbs at its head. As 
they caught sight of the ditch some of the officers cried 
out : 

** Where are the Forty-fourth ? If we get to the 
ditch, we have no means of crossing and scaling the 
lines ! " 

" Here comes the Forty-fourth ! Here comes the 
Forty-fourth ! " shouted the general ; adding in an under- 
tone, for his own private solace, that if he lived till to- 
morrow he would hang Mullens on the highest tree in 
the cypress wood. 

Reassured, these heroic men again pressed on in the 
face of that murderous fire. But this could not last. With 
half its number fallen, and all its commanding officers 
disabled except the general, its pathway strewed with 
dead and wounded, and the men falling faster and faster, 
the column wavered and reeled (so the American rifle- 
men thought) like a red ship on a tempestuous sea. At 



THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 215 

about a hundred yards from the lines the front ranks 
halted, and so threw the column into disorder, Gibbs 
shouting in the madness of vexation for them to re-form 
and advance. There was no re-forming under such a fire. 
Once checked, the column could not but break and re- 
treat in confusion. 

Just as the troops began to falter, General Paken- 
ham rode up from his post in the rear toward the head 
of the column. Meeting parties of the Forty-fourth run- 
ning about distracted, some carrying fascines, others 
firing, others in headlong flight, their leader nowhere to 
be seen, Pakenham strove to restore them to order, and 
to urge them on the way they were to go. 

" For shame ! " he cried bitterly ; " recollect that you 
are British soldiers. This is the road you ought to 

take ! " pointing to the flashing and roaring in 

front. 

Riding on, he was soon met by General Gibbs, who 
said : 

" I am sorry to have to report to you that the troops 
will not obey me. They will not follow me." 

Taking off his hat. General Pakenham spurred his 
horse to the very front of the wavering column, amid a 
torrent of rifle-balls, cheering on the troops by voice, 
by gesture, by example. At that moment a ball shat- 
tered his right arm, and it fell powerless to his side. 
The next, his horse fell dead upon the field. His aide. 
Captain McDougal, dismounted from his black Creole 
pony, and Pakenham, apparently unconscious of his 
dangling arm, mounted again, and followed the retreat- 
ing column, still calling upon them to halt and re-form. 
A few gallant spirits ran in toward the lines, threw 
themselves into the ditch, plunged across it, and fell 
scrambling up the sides of the soft and slippery breast- 
work. 



2i6 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Once out of the reach of those terrible rifles, the 
column halted and regained its self-possession. Lay- 
ing aside their heavy knapsacks, the men prepared for a 
second and more resolute advance. They were encour- 
aged, too, by seeing the Highlanders marching up in 
solid phalanx to their support with a front of a hundred 
men, their bayonets glittering in the sun, which had 
then begun to pierce the morning mist. At a quicker 
step, with General Gibbs on its right. General Paken- 
ham on the left, the Highlanders in clear and imposing 
view, the column again advanced into the fire. A fear- 
ful slaughter ensued ! There was one moment, when 
that thirty-two-pounder, loaded to the muzzle with mus- 
ket balls, poured its charge at point-blank range right 
into the head of the column, literally leveling it with 
the plain — laying low, it was afterward computed, two 
hundred men. The American line, as one of the British 
officers remarked, looked like a row of fiery furnaces ! 

The heroic Pakenham had not far to go to meet his 
doom. He was three hundred yards from the line when 
the real nature of his enterprise seemed to flash upon 
him, and he turned to Sir John Tylden and said : 

'* Order up the reserve." 

Then, seeing the Highlanders advancing to the sup- 
port of General Gibbs, he, still waving his hat, but wav- 
ing it now with his left hand, cried out : 

" Hurrah ! brave Highlanders ! " 

At that moment a mass of grapeshot, with a terrible 
crash, struck the group of which he was the central 
figure. One of the shots tore open the general's thigh, 
killed his horse, and brought horse and rider to the 
ground. Captain McDougal caught the general in his 
arms, removed him from the fallen horse, and was sup- 
porting him upon the field, when a second shot struck 
the wounded man in the groin, depriving him instantly 



THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 217 

of consciousness. He was borne to the rear and placed 
in the shade of an old live-oak ; and there, after gasping 
a few minutes, yielded up his life without a word, happily- 
ignorant of the sad issue of all his plans and toils. 

A more painful fate was that of General Gibbs. A 
few moments after Pakenham fell Gibbs received his 
death-wound, and was carried off the field writhing in 
agony and uttering fierce imprecations. He lingered 
all that day and the succeeding night, dying in torment 
on the morrow. Nearly at the same moment General 
Keane was painfully wounded in the neck and thigh, and 
was also borne to the rear. Colonel Dale, of the High- 
landers, fulfilled his prophecy, and fell at the head of 
his regiment. The Highlanders, under Major Creagh, 
wavered not, and advanced steadily, but too slowly, 
into the very tempest of General Carroll's fire, until 
they were within one hundred yards of the lines. There^ 
for cause unknown, they halted and stood, a huge and 
glittering target, until five hundred and forty-four of 
their number had fallen, then broke and fled in horror 
and amazement to the rear. The column of General 
Gibbs did not advance after the fall of their leader. 
Leaving heaps of slain behind them, they, too, forsook 
the bloody field, rushed in utter confusion out of the fire, 
and took refuge at the bottom of wet ditches and behind 
trees and bushes on the borders of the swamp. 

But not all of them ! Major Wilkinson, followed by 
Lieutenant Lavack and twenty men, pressed on to the 
ditch, floundered across it, climbed the breastwork, and 
raised his head and shoulders above its summit, upon 
which he fell, riddled with balls. The Tennesseeans and 
Kentuckians defending that part of the lines, struck 
with admiration at such heroic conduct, lifted his still 
breathing body and conveyed it tenderly behind the 
works. 



2i8 GENERAL JACKSON. 

'' Bear up, my dear fellow," said Major Smiley, of 
the Kentucky reserve; "you are too brave a man to 
die." 

" I thank you from my heart," whispered the dying 
man. " It's all over with me. You can render me a 
favor ; it is to communicate to my commander that I 
fell on your parapet, and died like a soldier and a true 
Englishman." 

Lavack reached the summit of the parapet unharmed, 
though with two shot-holes in his cap. He had heard 
Wilkinson, as they were crossing the ditch, cry out : 

" Now, why don't the troops come on ? The day is 
our own." 

With these last words in his ears, and not looking 
behind him, he had no sooner gained the breastwork 
than he demanded the swords of two American officers, 
the first he caught sight of in the lines. 

'' Oh, no," replied one of them ; " you are alone, 
and therefore ought to consider yourself our prisoner." 

Then Lavack looked around, and saw what is best 
described in his own language : 

" Now," he would say, as he told the story afterward 
to his comrades, ''conceive my indignation, on looking 
round, to find that the two leading regiments had van- 
ished as if the earth had opened and swallowed them 
up." 

The earth had swallowed them up, or was waiting to 
do so, and the brave Lavack was a prisoner. Lieuten- 
ant Lavack further declared that when he first looked 
down behind the American lines he saw the riflemen 
" flying in a disorderly mob," which all other witnesses 
deny. Doubtless there was some confusion there, as 
every man was fighting his own battle, and there was 
much struggling to get to the rampart to fire, and from 
the rampart to load. Moreover, if the lines had been 



THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 219 

surmounted by the foe, a backward movement on the 
part of the defenders would have been in order and 
necessary. 

Thus, then, it fared with the attack on the weakest 
part of the American position. Let us see what success 
rewarded the enemy's efforts against the strongest. 

Colonel Rennie, when he saw the signal rocket as- 
cend, pressed on to the attack with such rapidity that 
the American outposts along the river had to run for it, 
Rennie's vanguard close upon their heels. Indeed, so 
mingled seemed pursuers and pursued that Captain 
Humphrey had to withhold his fire for a few minutes, 
for fear of sweeping down friend and foe. As the last 
of the Americans leaped down into the isolated redoubt 
British soldiers began to mount its sides. A brief hand- 
to-hand conflict ensued within the redoubt between the 
party defending it and the British advance. In a sur- 
prisingly short time the Americans, overpowered by 
numbers and astounded at the suddenness of the attack, 
fled across the plank and climbed over into safety be- 
hind the lines. Then w^as poured into the redoubt a 
deadly and incessant fire, which cleared it of the foe in 
less time than it had taken them to capture it; while 
Humphrey, with his great guns, mowed down the still 
advancing column, and Patterson, from the other side of 
the river, added the fire of his powerful batteries. 

Brief was the unequal contest. Colonel Rennie, Cap- 
tain Henry, Major King, three only of this column, 
reached the summit of the rampart near the river's edge. 

"Hurrah, boys!" cried Rennie, already wounded, as 
the three officers gained the breastwork, " hurrah, boys ! 
the day is ours." 

At that moment Beale's New Orleans sharpshooters, 
withdrawing a few paces for better aim, fired a volley, 
and the three noble soldiers fell headlong into the ditch. 



220 GENERAL JACKSON. 

That was the end of it. Flight, tumultuous flight — some 
running on the top of the levee, some under it, others 
down the road, while Patterson's guns played upon them 
still with terrible effect. The three slain officers were 
brought out of the canal behind the lines, when, we are 
told, a warm discussion arose among the Rifles for the 
honor of having "brought down the colonel." Mr. 
Withers, a merchant of New Orleans, and the crack shot 
of the company, settled the controversy by remarking: 

" If he isn't hit above the eyebrows, it wasn't my 
shot." 

Upon examining the lifeless form of Rennie it was 
found that the fatal wound was indeed in the forehead. 
To Withers, therefore, was assigned the duty of sending 
the watch and other valuables found upon the person of 
the fallen hero to his widow, who was in the fleet off 
Lake Borgne. Such acts as these made a lasting im- 
pression upon the officers of the British army. When 
Washington Irving was in Paris, in 1822, Colonel Thorn- 
ton, who led the attack on the western bank, referred 
to the sending back of personal property of this kmd in 
terms of warm commendation. 

A story connected with the advance of Colonel Ren- 
nie's column is related by Judge Walker : " As the de- 
tachments along the road advanced, their bugler, a boy 
of fourteen or fifteen, climbing a small tree within two 
hundred yards of the American lines, straddled a limb 
and continued to blow the charge with all his power. 
There he remained during the whole action, while the 
cannon balls and bullets plowed the ground around him, 
killed scores of men, and tore even the branches of the 
tree in which he sat. Above the thunder of the artillery, 
the rattling of the musketry fire, and all the din and 
uproar of the strife, the shrill blast of the little bugler 
could be heard; and even when his companions had fallen 



THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 221 

back and retreated from the field he continued true to 
his duty and blew the charge with undiminished vigor. 
At last, when the British had entirely abandoned the 
ground, an American soldier passing from the lines cap- 
tured the little bugler and brought him into camp, where 
he was greatly astonished when some of the enthusiastic 
Creoles, who had observed his gallantry, actually em- 
braced him, and officers and men vied with each other 
in acts of kindness to so gallant a little soldier." 

The reserve, under General Lambert, was never or- 
dered up. Major Tylden obeyed the last order of his 
general, and General Lambert had directed the bugler 
to sound the advance. A chance shot struck the bugler's 
uplifted arm and the instrument fell to the ground. The 
charge was never sounded. General Lambert brought 
forward his division far enough to cover the retreat of 
the broken columns and to deter General Jackson from 
attempting a sortie. The chief command had fallen 
upon Lambert, and he was overwhelmed by the unex- 
pected and fearful issue of the battle. 

How long a time elapsed between the fire of the first 
American gun and the total rout of the attacking col- 
umns ? Twenty-five minutes ! Not that the American 
fire ceased or even slackened at the expiration of that 
period. The riflemen on the left and the troops on the 
right continued to discharge their weapons into the 
smoke that hung over the plain for two hours. But in 
the space of twenty-five minutes the discomfiture of the 
enemy in the open field was complete. The battery 
alone still made resistance. It required two hours of a 
tremendous cannonade to silence its great guns and 
drive its defenders to the rear. 

The scene behind the American works during the fire 
can be easily imagined. One half of the army never 
fired a shot. The battle was fought at the two extremi- 



222 GENERAL JACKSON. 

ties of the lines. The battalions of Planche, Dacquin, 
and Lacoste, the whole of the Fourty-fourth regiment, 
and one half of Coffee's Tennesseeans, had nothing to 
do but to stand still at their posts and chafe with vain 
impatience for a chance to join in the fight. The bat- 
teries alone at the center of the works contributed any- 
thing to the fortunes of the day. Yet that is not quite 
correct. " The moment the British came into view, and 
their signal rocket pierced the sky with its fiery train, 
the band of the Battalion d'Orleans struck up 'Yankee 
Doodle,' and thenceforth throughout the action it did 
not cease to discourse all the national and military airs 
in which it had been instructed." 

When the action began, Jackson walked along the 
left of the lines, speaking a few words of good cheer to 
the men as he passed the several corps. 

*' Stand to your guns. Don't waste your ammunition. 
See that every shot tells. Let us finish the business to- 
day." 

Such words as these escaped him now and then, the 
men not engaged cheering him as he went by. As the 
battle became general, he took a position on ground 
slightly elevated, near the center, which commanded a 
view of the scene. There, with mind intensely excited, 
he watched the progress of the strife. When it became 
evident that the enemy's columns were finally broken. 
Major Hinds, whose dragoons were drawn up in the 
rear, entreated the general for permission to dash out 
upon them in pursuit. It was a tempting offer to such 
a man as Jackson. But prudence prevailed, and the re- 
quest was refused. 

At eight o'clock, there being no signs of a renewed 
attack, and no enemy in sight, an order was sent along 
the lines to cease firing with the small arms. The gen- 
eral, surrounded by his staff, then walked from end to 



THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 223 

end of the works, stopping at each battery and post and 
addressing a few words of congratulation and praise to 
their defenders. It was a proud, glad moment for these 
men when, panting from their labor, blackened with 
smoke and sweat, they listened to the general's burning 
words and saw the light of victory in his countenance. 
With particular warmth he thanked and commended 
Beale's little band of riflemen, the companies of the 
Seventh, and Humphrey's artillerymen, who had so gal- 
lantly beaten back the column of Colonel Rennie. 
Heartily, too, he extolled the wonderful firing of the 
divisions of General Carroll and General Adair, not for- 
getting Coffee, who had dashed out upon the black 
skirmishers in the swamp and driven them out of sight 
in ten minutes. 

This joyful ceremony over, the artillery, which had 
continued to play upon the British batteries, ceased their 
fire for the guns to cool and the dense smoke to roll off. 
The whole army crowded to the parapet and looked 
over into the field. What a scene was gradually dis- 
closed to them! That gorgeous and imposing military 
array, the two columns of attack, the Highland phalanx, 
the distant reserve — all had vanished like an apparition. 
Far away down the plain the glass revealed a faint red 
line still receding. Nearer to the lines "we could see," 
says Nolte, "the British troops concealing themselves 
behind the shrubbery, or throwing themselves into the 
ditches and gullies. In some of the latter, indeed, they 
lay so thickly that they were only distinguishable in the 
distance by the white shoulder-belts, which formed a 
line along the top of their hiding-place." 

Still nearer, the plain was covered and heaped with 
dead and wounded, as well as with those who had fallen 
paralyzed by fear alone. " I never had," Jackson would 
say, "so grand and awful an idea of the resurrection as 



224 GENERAL JACKSON. 

on that day. After the smoke of the battle had cleared 
off somewhat I saw in the distance more than five 
hundred Britons emerging from the heaps of their 
dead comrades all over the plain, rising up, and still 
more distinctly visible as the field became clearer, com- 
ing forward and surrendering as prisoners of war to our 
soldiers. They had fallen at our first fire upon them 
without having received so much as a scratch, and lay 
prostrate as if dead until the close of the action." 

The American army were appalled and silenced at 
the scene before them. The writhings of the wounded, 
their shrieks and groans, their convulsive and sudden 
tossing of limbs, were horrible to see and hear. Seven 
hundred killed, fourteen hundred wounded, five hundred 
prisoners, were the result of that twenty-five minutes' 
work. Jackson's loss was eight killed and thirteen 
wounded. Two men were killed at the left of the lines, 
two in the isolated redoubt, and four in the swamp pur- 
suing the skirmishers. 

General Jackson had no sooner finished his round of 
congratulations, and beheld the completeness of his vic- 
tory on the eastern bank, than he began to cast anxious 
glances across the river, wondering at the silence of 
Morgan's lines and Patterson's guns. They flashed and 
spoke at length. Jackson and Adair, mounting the 
breastwork, saw Thornton's column advancing to the 
attack, and saw Morgan's men open fire upon them vig- 
orously. All is well, thought Jackson. 

" Take off your hats and give them three cheers ! " 
shouted the general, though Morgan's division was a 
mile and a half distant. 

The order was obeyed, and the whole army watched 
the action with intense interest, not doubting that the 
gallant Kentuckians and Louisianians on that side of the 
river would soon drive back the British column, as they 



THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 22$ 

themselves had just driven back those of Gibbs and 
Rennie. These men had become used to seeing British 
columns recoil and vanish before their fire. Not a 
thought of disaster on the western bank crossed their 
elated minds. 

Yet Thornton carried the day on the western bank. 
Even while the men were in the act of cheering, General 
Jackson saw with mortification, never forgotten by him 
while he drew breath, the division under General Mor- 
gan abandon their position and run in headlong flight 
toward the city. Clouds of smoke soon obscured the 
scene, but the flashes of the musketry advanced up 
the river, disclosing to General Adair and his men the 
humiliating fact that their comrades had not rallied, but 
were still in swift retreat before the foe. In a moment 
the elation of General Jackson's troops was changed to 
anger and apprehension. 

Fearing the worst consequences, and fearing them 
with reason, the general leaped down from the breast- 
work and made instant preparations for sending over a 
powerful re-enforcement. At all hazards the western 
bank must be regained. All is lost if it be not. Let but 
the enemy have free course up the western bank, with a 
mortar and a twelve-pounder, and New Orleans will be 
at their mercy in two hours ! Nay, let Commodore Pat- 
terson but leave one of his guns unspiked, and Jackson's 
lines, raked by it from river to swamp, are untenable ! 
All this, which was immediately apparent to the mind of 
General Jackson, was understood also by all of his army 
who had reflected upon their position. Indeed, by ten 
o'clock in the morning the British were masters of the 
western bank, although, owing to the want of available 
artillery,, their triumph for the moment was a fruitless 
one. On one of the guns captured in General Morgan's 
lines the victors read this inscription: <' Taken at the 



226 GENERAL JACKSON. 

surrender of Yorktown, 1781." In a tent behind the 
lines they found the ensign of one of the Louisiana 
regiments, which still hangs in Whitehall, London, bear- 
ing these words : '' Taken at the battle of New Orleans, 
Jan. 8th, 1815." 

General Lambert, stunned by the events of the morn- 
ing, was morally incapable of improving this important 
success. And it was well for him and for his army that 
he was so. Soldiers there have been who would have 
seen in Thornton's triumph the means of turning the 
tide of disaster and snatching victory from the jaws of 
defeat. But General Lambert found himself suddenly 
invested with the command of an army which, besides 
having lost a third of its effective force, was almost 
destitute of field officers. The mortality among the 
higher grade of officers had been frightful. Three ma- 
jor-generals, eight colonels and lieutenant-colonels, six 
majors, eighteen captains, and fifty-four subalterns, were 
among the killed and wounded. In such circumstances, 
Lambert, instead of hurrying over artillery and re-en- 
forcements, and marching on New Orleans, did a less 
spirited but a wiser thing: he sent over an officer to 
survey General Morgan's lines, and ascertain how many 
men would be required to hold them. In other words, 
he sent over an officer to bring him back a plausible ex- 
cuse for abandoning Colonel Thornton's conquest. And 
during the absence of the officer on this errand the Brit- 
ish general resolved upon a measure still more pacific. 

General Jackson, meanwhile, was intent upon dis- 
patching his re-enforcement. It never for one moment 
occurred to his warlike mind that the British general 
would relinquish so vital an advantage without a desper- 
ate struggle, and accordingly he prepared for a desper- 
ate struggle. Organizing promptly a strong body of 
troops, he placed it under the command of General 



THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 22/ 

Humbert, a refugee officer of distinction who had led 
the French revolutionary expedition into Ireland in 
1798, and was then serving in the lines as a volunteer. 
Humbert, besides being the only general officer that 
Jackson could spare from his own position, was a soldier 
of high repute and known courage, a martinet in disci- 
pline, and a man versed in the arts of European warfare. 
About eleven o'clock the re-enforcement left the camp, 
with orders to hasten across the river by the ferry at 
New Orleans and march down toward the enemy, and, 
after effecting a junction with General Morgan's troops, 
to attack him and drive him from the lines. Before 
noon Humbert was well on his way. 

Soon after midday, some American troops who were 
walking about the blood-stained field in front of Jack- 
son's position perceived a British party of novel aspect 
approaching. It consisted of an officer in full uniform, 
a trumpeter, and a soldier bearing a white flag. Halt- 
ing at the distance of three hundred yards from the 
breastwork, the trumpeter blew a blast upon his bugle, 
which brought the whole army to the edge of the para- 
pet, gazing with eager curiosity upon this unexpected 
but not unwelcome spectacle. Colonel Butler and two 
other officers were immediately dispatched by General 
Jackson to receive the message thus announced. After 
an exchange of courteous salutations, the British officer 
handed Colonel Butler a letter directed to the American 
commander-in-chief, which proved to be a proposal for 
an armistice of twenty-four hours, that the dead might 
be buried and the wounded removed from the field'. 
The letter was signed " Lambert," a device, as was con- 
jectured, to conceal from Jackson the death of the Brit- 
ish general in command. 

The sprinkling of Scottish blood that flowed in Jack- 
son's veins asserted itself on this occasion. Time was 



228 GENERAL JACKSON. 

now an all-important object with him, since Humbert 
and his command could not yet have crossed the river, 
and Jackson's whole soul was bent on the regaining of 
the western bank. 

"Lambert?" thought the general. "Who is Lam- 
bert ? " 

Major Butler was ordered to return to the flag of 
truce, and to say that Major-General Jackson would be 
happy to receive any communication from the com- 
mander-in-chief of the British army ; but as to the letter 
signed " Lambert," Major-General Jackson, not know- 
ing the rank and powers of that gentleman, must beg to 
decline corresponding with him. 

The flag departed, but returned in half an hour with 
the same proposal, signed " John Lambert, commander- 
in-chief of the British forces." Jackson's answer was 
prompt and ingenious. Humbert, by this time, he 
thought, if he had not crossed the river, must be near 
crossing, and might, in a diplomatic sense, be considered 
crossed. Jackson therefore consented to an armistice 
on the eastern bank, expressly stipulating that hostili- 
ties were not to be suspended on the western side of the 
river, and that neither party should send over re-en- 
forcements until the expiration of the armistice! 

When this reply reached General Lambert he had 
not yet received the report from the western bank, and 
was still in some degree undecided as to the course he 
should pursue there. With the next return of the flag, 
therefore, came a request from Lambert for time to 
consider General Jackson's reply. To-morrow morning, 
at ten o'clock, he would send a definite answer. The 
cannonade from the lines continued through the after- 
noon, and the troops stood at their posts, not certain 
that they would not again be attacked. 

Early in the afternoon the officer returned from his 



THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 229 

inspection of the works on the western bank, and gave 
it as his opinion that they could not be held with less 
than two thousand men. General Lambert at once sent 
an order to Colonel Gubbins to abandon the works, and 
to recross the river with his whole command. The order 
was not obeyed without difficulty, for by this time the 
Louisianians, urged by a desire to retrieve the fortunes 
of the day and their own honor, began to approach the 
lost redoubts in considerable bodies. 

With what alacrity Commodore Patterson and Gen- 
eral Morgan then rushed to their redoubts and batteries ; 
with what assiduity the sailors bored out the spikes of 
the guns, toiling at the work all the next night ; with 
what zeal the troops labored to strengthen the lines; 
with what joy Jackson heard the tidings, may be left to 
the reader to imagine. 

The dead in front of Jackson's lines, scattered and 
heaped upon the field, lay all night a spectacle of hor- 
ror to the American outposts stationed. in their midst. 
Many of the wounded succeeded in crawling or tottering 
back to their camp. Many more were brought in behind 
the lines and conveyed to New Orleans, where they 
received every humane attention. But probably some 
hundreds of poor fellows, hidden in the wood or lying 
motionless in ditches, lingered in unrelieved agony all 
that day and night, until late in the following morning. 
As soon as it was dark, many uninjured soldiers, who 
had lain in the ditches and shrubbery, rejoined their 
comrades in the rear. 

The news of the great victory electrified the nation, 
and raised it from the lowest pitch of despondency. All 
the large cities were illuminated in the evening after the 
glad tidings reached them. Before the rejoicings were 
over came news still more joyful — that the commission- 
ers at Ghent had signed a treaty of peace. The war was 
16 



230 



GENERAL JACKSON. 



at an end. A courier was promptly dispatched from 
Washington to New Orleans to convey to General Jack- 
son the news of peace. Furnished by the postmaster- 
general with a special order to his deputies on the route 
to facilitate the progress of the messenger by all the 
means in their power, he traveled with every advantage, 
and made great speed. He left Washington on the 15th 
of February, thirty-eight days after the battle. He has 
a fair month's journey before him, which he will perform 
in nineteen days. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 

How pleasant it would be to dismiss now the con- 
queror home to his Hermitage, to enjoy the congratula- 
tions of his neighbors and the plaudits of a nation whose 
pride he had so keenly gratified ! His work was not 
done. The next three months of his life at New Orleans 
were crowded with events, many of which were delight- 
ful, many of which were painful in the extreme. 

The trials of the American army, so far as its pa- 
tience was concerned, began, not ended, with the vic- 
tory of the 8th of January. The rains descended and 
the floods came upon the soft delta of the Mississippi, 
converting both camps into quagmires. Relieved of 
care, relieved from toil, yet compelled to keep the field 
by night and day, the greater part of the American 
army had nothing to do but endure the inevitable 
miseries of the situation. Disease began its fell work 
among them — malignant influenza, fevers, and, worst 
of all, dysentery. Major Latour computes that during 
the few weeks that elapsed between the 8th of January 
and the end of the campaign, five hundred of Jackson's 
army died from these complaints — a far greater number 
than had fallen in action. While the enemy remained 
there was no repining. The sick men, yellow and gaunt, 
staggered into the hospitals when they could no longer 
stand to their posts, and lay down to die without a 
murmur. 



2^2 GENERAL JACKSON. 

For ten days after the battle the English army re- 
mained in their encampment, deluged with rain and 
flood, and played upon at intervals by the American 
batteries on both sides of the river. They seemed to 
be totally inactive. They were not so. General Lam- 
bert, from the day of the great defeat, was resolved to 
retire to the shipping. But that had now become an 
affair of extreme difficulty, as an English officer ex- 
plains : 

" In spite of our losses," he says, " there were not 
throughout the armament a sufficient number of boats 
to transport above one half of the army at a time. If, 
however, we should .separate, the chances were that 
both parties would be destroyed; for those embarked 
might be intercepted, and those left behind would be 
obliged to cope with the entire American force. Be- 
sides, even granting that the Americans might be re- 
pulsed, it would be impossible to take to our boats in 
their presence, and thus at least one division, if not 
both, must be sacrificed. 

" To obviate this difficulty, prudence required that 
the road which we had formed on landing should be 
contmued to the very margin of the lake, while appear- 
ances seemed to indicate the total impracticability of 
the scheme. From firm ground to the water's edge was 
here a distance of many miles, through the very center 
of a morass where human foot had never before trod- 
den. Yet it was desirable at least to make the attempt ; 
for if it failed we should only be reduced to our former 
alternative of gaining a battle or surrendering at dis- 
cretion. 

" Having determined to adopt this course. General 
Lambert immediately dispatched strong working par- 
ties, under the guidance of engineer officers, to lengthen 
the road, keeping as near as possible to the margin of 



END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 



233 



the creek. But the task assigned to them was burdened 
with difficulties. For the extent of several leagues no 
firm footing could be discovered on which to rest the 
foundation of a path, nor any trees to assist in forming 
hurdles. All that could be done, therefore, was to bind 
together large quantities of reeds and lay them across 
the quagmire, by which means at least the semblance 
of a road was produced, however wanting in firmness 
and solidity ; but where broad ditches came in the way, 
many of which intersected the morass, the workmen 
were necessarily obliged to apply more durable materials. 
For these, bridges composed in part of large branches, 
brought with immense labor from the woods, were con- 
structed, but they were, on the whole, little superior 
in point of strength to the rest of the path, for, though 
the edges were supported by timber, the middle was 
filled up only by reeds." 

It required nine days of incessant and arduous labor 
to complete the road. The wounded were then sent on 
board, except eighty who could not be removed. The 
abandoned guns were spiked and broken. In the even- 
ing of the i8th the main body of the army commenced 
its retreat. "Trimming the fires," continues the Brit- 
ish officer, "and arranging all things in the same order 
as if no change were to take place, regiment after regi- 
ment stole away, as soon as darkness concealed their 
motions ; leaving the pickets to follow as a rear guard, 
but with strict injunctions not to retire till daylight 
began to appear. As may be supposed, the most pro- 
found silence was maintained ; not a man opening his 
mouth except to issue necessary orders, and even then 
speaking in a whisper. Not a cough or any other noise 
was to be heard from the head to the rear of the col- 
umn ; and even the steps of the soldiers were planted 
with care, to prevent the slightest stamping or echo." 



234 GENERAL JACKSON. 

With an ignominious wallow in the mire ("the V7hole 
army," as another narrator remarks, " covered with mud 
from the top of the head to the sole of the foot ") the 
Wellington heroes ended their month's exertions in the 
delta of the Mississippi. They were in mortal terror of 
the alligators, it appears, whose domam they had in- 
truded upon. "Just before dark, on the night of the re- 
treat," says Captain Cooke, " I saw an alligator emerge 
from the water and penetrate the wilderness of reeds 
which encircled us on this muddy quagmire as far as 
the eye could reach. The very idea of the monster 
prowling about in the stagnant swamp took possession 
of my mind in a most forcible manner ; to look out for 
the enemy was a secondary consideration. The word 
was, * Look out for alligators ! ' Nearly the whole night 
I stood a few paces from the entrance of the hut, not 
daring to enter, under the apprehension that an alligator 
might push a broad snout through the reeds and gobble 
me up. The soldiers slept in a lump. At length, being 
quite worn out from want of sleep, I summoned up 
courage to enter the hut, but often started wildly out 
of my feverish slumbers, involuntarily laying hold of 
my naked sword, and conjuring up every rustling noise 
among the reeds to be one of those disgusting brutes, 
with a mouth large enough to swallow an elephant's 
leg." 

The retreat was so well managed (General Lambert 
was knighted for it soon after) that the sun was high in 
the heavens on the following morning before the Amer- 
ican army had any suspicion of the departure of the 
enemy. And when it began to be suspected, some fur- 
ther time elapsed before the fact was ascertained. Their 
camp presented the same appearance as it had for many 
days previous. Sentinels seemed to be posted as before, 
and flags were flying. The American general and his 



END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 



235 



aides, from the high window at headquarters, surveyed 
the position through the glass, and were inclined to 
think that the enemy were only lying low, with a view 
to draw the troops out of the lines into the open plain. 
The veteran General Humbert, a Frenchman, surpassed 
the acuteness of the backwoodsmen on this occasion. 
Being called upon for his opinion, he took the glass and 
spied the deserted camp. 

'^They are gone," said he, with the air of a man who 
is certain. 

** How do you know ? " inquired the general. 

The old soldier replied by directing attention to a 
crow that was flying close to what had been supposed to 
be one of the enemy's sentinels. The proximity of the 
crow showed that the sentinel was a " dummy," and so 
ill-made, too, that it was not even a good scarecrow. 
The game was now apparent, yet the general ordered 
out a party to reconnoiter. While it was forming, a 
British medical officer approached the lines, bearing a 
letter from General Lambert, which announced his de- 
parture, and recommended to the humanity of the Amer- 
ican commander the eighty wounded men who were 
necessarily left behind. There could now be little doubt 
of the retreat, but Jackson was still wary, and restrained 
the exultant impetuosity of the men, who were disposed 
at once to visit the abandoned camp. Sending Major 
Hinds's dragoons to harass the retreat of the army, if it 
had not already gone beyond reach, and dispatching his 
surgeon-general to the wounded soldiers left to his care, 
the general himself, with his staff, rode to the enemy's 
camp. He saw that they had indeed departed, and 
that his own triumph was complete and irreversible. 
Fourteen pieces of cannon were found deserted and 
spoiled, and much other property, public and private. 
For one item, three thousand cannon balls were picked 



236 GENERAL JACKSON. 

up on the field and piled behind the American ramparts 
by the Kentuckian troops. 

The general visited the hospital and assured the 
wounded officers and soldiers of his protection and care — 
a promise which was promptly and amply fulfilled. " The 
circumstances of these wounded men," says Mr. Walker, 
"being made known in the city, a number of ladies rode 
down in their carriages with such articles as were deemed 
essential to the comfort of the unfortunates. One of 
these ladies was a belle of the city, famed for her charms 
of person and mind. Seeing her noble philanthropy and 
devotion to his countrymen, one of the British surgeons 
conceived a warm regard and admiration, which subse- 
quent acquaintance ripened into love. This surgeon 
settled in New Orleans after the war, espoused the 
Creole lady whose acquaintance he had made under 
such interesting circumstances, and became an esteemed 
citizen and the father of a large family." Dr. J. C. Kerr 
was the hero of this romantic story. He lived until 
within these few years. A son of his was that Victor 
Kerr who was executed at Havana with General Lopez 
and Colonel Crittenden in 185 1 — his last words, "I die 
like a Louisianian and a freeman ! " 

Two days later the main body of the American troops 
returned to New Orleans. " The arrival of the army," 
says Major Latour, who saw the spectacle, "was a tri- 
umph. The noncombatant part of the population of 
New Orleans — that is, the aged, the infirm, the matrons, 
daughters, and children — all went out to meet their de- 
liverers, to receive with felicitations the saviors of their 
country. Every countenance was expressive of grati- 
tude; joy sparkled in every feature on beholding fathers, 
brothers, husbands, sons, who had so recently saved the 
lives, fortunes, and honor of their families by repelling 
an enemy come to conquer and subjugate the country. 



END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 



^17 



Nor were the sensations of the brave soldiers less lively 
on seeing themselves about to be compensated for all 
their sufferings by the enjoyment of domestic felicity. 
They once more embraced the objects of their tenderest 
affections, were hailed by them as their saviors and de- 
liverers, and felt conscious that they had deserved the 
honorable title. How light, how trifling, how inconsider- 
able did their past toils and dangers appear to them at 
this glorious moment ! All was forgotten, all painful 
recollections gave way to the most exquisite sensations 
of inexpressible joy." 

A few days after the return of the army the general 
went in state to the cathedral. " A temporary arch," 
continues Major Latour, "was erected in the middle of 
the grand square, opposite the principal entrance of 
the cathedral. The different uniformed companies of 
Planche's battalion lined both sides of the way, from 
the entrance of the square toward the river to the 
church. The balconies of the windows of the city hall, 
the parsonage house, and all the adjacent buildings, 
were filled with spectators. The whole square and the 
streets leading to it were thronged with people. The 
triumphal arch was supported by six columns. Among 
those on the right was a young lady representing Justice, 
and on the left another representing Liberty. Under 
the arch were two young children, each on a pedestal, 
holding a crown of laurel. From the arch in the middle 
of the square to the church, at proper intervals, were 
ranged young ladies representing the different States 
and Territories composing the American Union, all 
dressed in white, covered with transparent veils, and 
wearing a silver star on their foreheads. Each of these 
young ladies held in her right hand a flag inscribed with 
the name of the State she represented, and in her left a 
basket trimmed with blue ribbons and full of flowers. 



238 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Behind each was a shield suspended on a lance stuck in 
the ground, inscribed with the name of a State or Terri- 
tory. The intervals had been so calculated that the 
shields, linked together with verdant festoons, occupied 
the distance from the triumphal arch to the church. 

'' General Jackson, accompanied by the officers of 
his staff, arrived at the entrance of the square, where he 
was requested to proceed to the church by the walk pre- 
pared for him. As he passed under the arch he received 
the crowns of laurel from the two children, and was con- 
gratulated in an address spoken by Miss Kerr, who rep- 
resented the State of Louisiana. The general then 
proceeded to the church, amid the salutations of the 
young ladies representing the different States, who 
strewed his passage with flowers. At the entrance of 
the church he was received by the Abbe Dubourg, who 
addressed him in a speech suitable to the occasion, and 
conducted him to a seat prepared for him near the altar. 
A Te Deum was chanted with impressive solemnity, and 
soon after a guard of honor attended the general to his 
quarters, and in the evening the town, with its suburbs, 
was splendidly illuminated." 

The day and night were given up to pleasure, both 
by the soldiers and the people. The next day discipline 
resumed its sway. The Tennessee troops were encamped 
on their old ground above the city. New troops kept 
coming by squads and companies, and the boat load of 
arms arrived for them. The general addressed himself 
to the task of rendering the country secure against a 
second surprise, in case the enemy should attempt a 
landing elsewhere. New works were ordered in exposed 
localities. New Orleans was saved, but the Southwest 
was still the country menaced, and it was not to be sup- 
posed that the British fleet and army, re-enforced by a 
thousand new troops, would retire from the coast with- 



END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 



239 



out an attempt to retrieve the campaign. Not a thought, 
not the faintest presentiment of immediate peace, oc- 
curred to any one. The question was not whether the 
enemy would make a new attempt, but whether New 
Orleans or Mobile would be its object. 

For the first three weeks after the triumphal return 
of the army to New Orleans little occurred to disturb 
the public harmony. Martial law was rigorously main- 
tained, and all the troops were kept in service. The 
duty at the lines and below the lines was hard and dis- 
agreeable, but, whatever murmurs were uttered by the 
troops, the duty was punctually performed. The mor- 
tality at the hospitals continued to be very great. The 
business of the city was interrupted in some degree by 
the prevalence of martial law, and still more by the re- 
tention in service of business men. But so long as 
there was no whisper of peace in the city, the restraint 
was felt to be necessary, and was submitted to without 
audible complaining. During this interval some pleas- 
ant things occurred, which exhibit the general in a favor- 
able light. 

On February 4th, Edward Livingston, Mr. Shepherd, 
and Captain Maunsel White were sent to the British 
fleet to arrange for a further exchange of prisoners, and 
for the recovery of a large number of slaves, who, after 
aiding the English army on shore, had gone off with 
them to their ships. They were charged also with a 
less difficult errand. General Keane, when he received 
his wounds on the 8th of January, lost on the field a 
valuable sword, the gift of a friend. He stated the cir- 
cumstance to General Jackson, and requested him to 
restore the sword. It was an unusual request, thought 
the general, but he complied with it, adding polite wishes 
for General Keane's recovery. General Keane acknowl- 
edged the restoration of the sword in courteous terms. 



240 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Mr. Livingston returned to New Orleans with the 
news of peace on the 19th of February. The city was 
thrown into joyful excitement, and the troops expected 
an immediate release from their arduous toils. But 
they were doomed to disappointment. The package 
which Admiral Malcolm had received contained only a 
newspaper announcement of peace. There was little 
doubt of its truth, but the statements of a newspaper 
are as nothing to the commanders of fleets and armies. 
To check the rising tide of feeling, Jackson, on the very 
day of Livingston's return, issued a proclamation, stat- 
ing the exact nature of the intelligence, and exhorting 
the troops to bear with patience the toils of the cam- 
paign a little longer. "We must not," said he, *'be 
thrown into false security by hopes that may be de- 
lusive. It is by holding out such that an artful and in- 
sidious enemy too often seeks to accomplish what the 
utmost exertions of his strength will not enable him to 
effect. To place you off your guard and attack you by 
surprise is the natural expedient of one who, having ex- 
perienced the superiority of your arms, still hopes to 
overcome you by stratagem. Though young in the 
* trade ' of war, it is not by such artifices that he will 
deceive us." 

This proclamation seems rather to have inflamed than 
allayed the general discontent. Two days after the re- 
turn of Livingston a paragraph appeared in the Louisi- 
ana Gazette to the effect that "a flag had just arrived 
from Admiral Cochrane to General Jackson, oflicially 
announcing the conclusion of peace at Ghent between 
the United States and Great Britain, and virtually re- 
questing a suspension of arms." For this statement 
there was not the least foundation in truth, and its ef- 
fect at such a crisis was to inflame the prevailing ex- 
citement. Upon reading the paragraph Jackson caused 



END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 



241 



to be prepared an official contradiction, which he sent 
by an aide-de-camp to the offending editor, with a written 
order requiring its insertion in the next issue of the 
paper. 

This was regarded by the rebellious spirits as a new 
provocation. 

In this posture of affairs some of the French troops 
hit upon an expedient to escape the domination of the 
general. They claimed the protection of the French 
consul, M. Toussard. The consul, nothing loath, hoisted 
the French flag over the consulate, and dispensed certifi- 
cates of French citizenship to all applicants. Naturalized 
Frenchmen availed themselves of the same artifice, and 
foe a few days Toussard had his hands full of pleasant 
and profitable occupation. Jackson met this new diffi- 
culty by ordei;ing the consul and all Frenchmen who 
were not citizens of the United States to leave New Or- 
leans within three days, and not to return to within one 
hundred and twenty miles of the city until the news of 
the ratification of the treaty of peace was officially 
published ! The register of votes of the last election 
was resorted to for the purpose of ascertaining who 
were citizens and who were not. Every man who had 
voted was claimed by the general as his " fellow-citizen 
and soldier," and compelled to do duty as such. 

This bold stroke of authority aroused much indigna- 
tion among the anti-martial law party, which on the 3d 
of March found voice in the public press. A long arti- 
cle appeared anonymously in one of the newspapers, 
boldly but temperately and respectfully calling in ques- 
tion General Jackson's recent conduct, and especially 
the banishment of the French from the city. Here 
was open defiance. Jackson accepted the issue with a 
promptness all his own. He sent an order to the editor 
of the Louisiana Courier, in which the article appeared, 



242 GENERAL JACKSON. 

commanding his immediate presence at headquarters. 
The name of the author of the communication was de- 
manded and given. It was Mr. LouaiUier, a-«iember of 
the Legislature, a gentleman who had distinguished him- 
self by his zeal in the public cause, and who had been 
particularly prominent in promoting subscriptions for 
the relief of the ill-clad soldiers. Upon his surrendering 
the name the editor was dismissed. 

At noon on Sunday, the 5th of March, two days after 
the publication of the article, Mr. LouaiUier was walk- 
ing along the levee, opposite one of the most frequented 
coffee-houses in the city, when a Captain Amelung, com- 
manding a file of soldiers, tapped him on the shoulder 
and informed him that he was a prisoner. LouaiUier, 
astonished and indignant, called the bystanders to wit- 
ness that he was conveyed away against his will by 
armed men. A lawyer, P. L. Morel by name, who wit- 
nessed the arrest from the steps of the coffee-house, ran 
to the spot, and was forthwith engaged by LouaiUier to 
act as his legal adviser in this extremity. LouaiUier was 
placed in confinement. Morel hastened to the residence 
of Judge Dominick A. Hall, of the District Court of the 
United States, to whom he presented, in his client's 
name, a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The judge 
granted the petition, and the writ was immediately 
served upon the general. Jackson instantly sent a file 
of troops to arrest the judge, and, before night, Judge 
Hall and Mr. LouaiUier were prisoners in the same 
apartment of the barracks. 

So far from obeying the writ of habeas corpus, Gen- 
eral Jackson seized the writ from the officer who served 
it and retained it in his own possession, giving to the 
officer a certified copy of the same. LouaiUier was at 
once placed on his trial before a court-martial upon 
the following charges, all based upon the article in the 



END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 



243 



Louisiana Courier: Exciting to mutiny; general mis- 
conduct; being a spy; illegal and improper conduct; 
disobedience to orders; writing a willful and corrupt 
libel against the general; unsoldierly conduct; viola- 
tion of a general order. 

Nor were these the only arrests. A Mr. Hollander, 
partner in business of our friend Nolte, expressed him- 
self somewhat freely in conversation respecting Jack- 
son's proceedings, and suddenly found himself a pris-' 
oner in consequence. 

On Monday, March 6th, the day after the arrest of 
Louaillicr and Judge Hall, the courier arrived at New 
Orleans who had been dispatched from Washington 
nineteen days before to bear to General Jackson the 
news of peace. He had traveled fast by night and day, 
and most eagerly had his coming been looked for. His 
packet was opened at headquarters and found to con- 
tain no dispatches announcing the conclusion of peace, 
but an old letter, of no importance then, which had been 
written by the Secretary of War to General Jackson 
some months before. It appeared that in the hurry of 
his departure from AVashington the courier had taken the 
wrong packet. The blank astonishment of the general, 
of his aides, and of the courier, can be imagined. The 
only proof the unlucky messenger could furnish of the 
genuineness of his mission and the truth of his intelli- 
gence was an order from the Postmaster-General requir- 
ing his deputies on the route to afford the courier bear- 
ing the news of peace all the facilities in their power for 
the rapid performance of his journey. In ordinary cir- 
cumstances this would have sufficed. But the events of 
yesterday had rendered the circumstances extraordinary. 
The general resolved still to hold the reins of military 
power firmly in his hands. New Orleans was still a camp, 
and Judge Hall a soldier. 



244 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Jackson wrote, however, to General Lambert on the 
same day, stating precisely what had occurred, and in- 
closing a copy of the Postmaster-General's order, " that 
you may determine," said the general, "whether these 
occurrences will not justify you in agreeing, by a cessa- 
tion of all hostilities, to anticipate a happy return of 
peace between our two nations, which the first direct in- 
telligence must bring to us in an official form." 

The week had nearly passed away. Judge Hall re- 
mained in confinement at the barracks. General Jackson 
resolved on Saturday, the i ith of March, to send the judge 
out of the city and set him at liberty, which was done. 

Brief was the exile of the banished judge. The very 
next day — Monday, March 13th — arrived from Washing- 
ton a courier with a dispatch from the Government an- 
nouncing the ratification of the treaty of peace, and 
inclosing a copy of the treaty and of the ratification. 
Before that day closed the joyful news was forwarded 
to the British general, hostilities were publicly declared 
to be at an end, martial law was abrogated, and com- 
merce released. **And in order," concluded the gen- 
eral's proclamation, "that the general joy attending this 
event may extend to all manner of persons, the com- 
manding general proclaims and orders a pardon for all 
military offenses heretofore committed in this district, 
and orders that all persons in confinement under such 
charges be immediately discharged." 

Louaillier was a prisoner no longer. Judge Hall re- 
turned to his home. On the day following, the impatient 
militia and volunteers of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missis- 
sippi, and Louisiana were dismissed with a glorious 
burst of grateful praise. 

I shall not dwell upon the subsequent proceedings of 
Judge Hall. March 22d, in the United States District 
Court, on motion of Attorney John Dick, it was ruled 



END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 245 

and ordered by the court that '' the said Major-General 
Andrew Jackson show cause on Friday next, the 24th of 
March, instant, at ten o'clock a. m., why an attachment 
should not be awarded against him for contempt of this 
court, in having disrespectfully wrested from the clerk 
aforesaid an original order of the honorable the judge 
of this court for the issuing of a writ of /ladeas corpus in 
the case of a certain Louis LouaiUier, then imprisoned 
by the said Major-General Andrew Jackson, and for de- 
taining the same. Also, for disregarding the said writ of 
habeas corpus when issued and served, in having impris- 
oned the honorable the judge of this court, and for 
other contempts, as stated by the witnesses." 

General Jackson appeared in court attended by a 
concourse of excited people. He wore the dress of a 
private citizen. " Undiscovered amid the crowd," Ma- 
jor Eaton relates, " he had nearly reached the bar, when, 
being perceived, the room instantly rang with the shouts 
of a thousand voices. Raising himself on a bench and 
moving his hand to procure silence, a pause ensued. He 
then addressed himself to the crowd, told them of the 
duty due to the public authorities, for that any impro- 
priety of theirs would be imputed to him, and urged, if 
they had any regard for him, that they would on the 
present occasion forbear those feelings and expressions 
of opinion. Silence being restored, the judge rose from 
his seat, and remarking that it was impossible and un- 
safe to transact business at such a moment and under 
such threatening circumstances, directed the marshal to 
adjourn the court. The general immediately interfered, 
and requested that it might not be done. 'There is no 
danger here ; there shall be none. The same arm that 
protected from outrage this city against the invaders of 
the country, will shield and protect this court or perish 
in the effort.' 
17 



246 GENERAL JACKSON. 

*' Tranquillity was restored, and the court proceeded 
to business. The district attorney had prepared and 
now presented a file of nineteen questions to be answered 
by the prisoner. ' Did you not arrest Louaillier ? ' ' Did 
you not arrest the judge of this court } ' ' Did you not 
seize the writ of habeas corpus ? ' ' Did you not say a 
variety of disrespectful things of the judge?' These 
interrogatories the general utterly refused to answer, 
to listen to, or to receive. He told the court that in 
a paper previously presented by his counsel he had ex- 
plained fully the reasons that had influenced his con- 
duct. That paper had been rejected without a hearing. 
He could add nothing to that paper. * Under these cir- 
cumstances,' said he, ' I appear before you to receive the 
sentence of the court, having nothing further in my de- 
fense to offer.' " 

Whereupon Judge Hall pronounced the judgment of 
the court. It is recorded in the words following : '' On 
this day appeared in person Major-General Andrew 
Jackson, and, being duly informed by the court that an 
attachment had issued against him for the purpose of 
bringing him into court, and the district attorney hav- 
ing filed interrogatories, the court informed General 
Jackson that they would be tendered to him for the pur- 
pose of answering thereto. The said General Jackson 
refused to receive them, or to make any answer to the 
said interrogatories. Whereupon the court proceeded to 
pronounce judgment; which was, 'That Major-General 
Andrew Jackson do pay a fine of one thousand dollars 
to the United States.' " 

The general was borne from the courtroom in tri- 
umph; or as Major Eaton has it, *' he was seized and 
forcibly hurried from the hall to the streets, amid the re- 
iterated cries of * Huzza for Jackson ! ' from the immense 
concourse that surrounded him. They presently met a 



END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 247 

carriage in which a lady was riding, when, politely tak- 
ing her from it, the general was made, spite of entreaty, 
to occupy her place. The horses being removed, the car- 
riage was drawn on and halted at the coffee-house, into 
which he was carried, and thither the crowd followed, 
huzzaing for Jackson and menacing violently the judge. 
Having prevailed on them to hear him, he addressed 
them with great feeling and earnestness; implored them 
to run into no excesses; that if they had the least grati- 
tude for his services, or regard for him personally, they 
could evince it in no way so satisfactorily as by assent- 
ing, as he most freely did, to the decision which had just 
been pronounced against him." 

Upoli reaching his quarters he sent back an aide-de- 
camp to the courtroom with a check on one of the city 
banks for a thousand dollars. And thus the offended 
majesty of the law was supposed to be avenged. 

It is not to be inferred, from the conduct of the 
people in the courtroom, that the course of General 
Jackson in maintaining martial law so long after the 
conclusion of peace was morally certain, was generally 
approved by the people of New Orleans. It was not. 
It was approved by many, forgiven by most, resented by 
a few. An effort was made to raise the amount of the 
general's fine by a public subscription, to which no one 
was allowed to contribute more than one dollar. But 
Nolte tells us (how truly I know not) that, after raising 
with difficulty one hundred and sixty dollars, the scheme 
was quietly given up. He adds that the courtroom on 
the day of the general's appearance was occupied chiefly 
by the special partisans of the general. 

On the 6th of April General Jackson and his family 
left New Orleans on their return to Tennessee. On ap- 
proaching Nashville the general was met by a procession 
of troops, students, and citizens, who deputed one of 



2^8 GENERAL JACKSON. 

their number to welcome him in an address. At Nash- 
ville a vast concourse was assembled, among whom were 
many of the troops who had served under him at New 
Orleans. The greatest enthusiasm prevailed. Within 
the courthouse Mr. Felix Grundy received the general 
with an eloquent speech, recounting in glowing periods 
the leading events of the last campaigns. The students 
of Cumberland College also addressed the general. The 
replies of General Jackson to these various addresses 
were short, simple, and sufficient. 

And so WQ dismiss the hero home to his beloved 
Hermitage, there to recruit his impaired energies by a 
brief period of repose. He had been absent for the 
space of twenty-one months, with the exception of three 
weeks between the end of the Creek War and the begin- 
ning of the campaign of New Orleans. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 

Four months' rest at the Hermitage. In the cool 
days of October we find the general on horseback once 
more, riding slowly through Tennessee, across Virginia, 
toward the city of Washington — the whole journey a tri- 
umphal progress. At Lynchburg, in Virginia, the peo- 
ple turned out en masse to greet the conqueror. A num- 
ber of gentlemen rode out of town to meet him, one of 
whom saluted the general with an address, to which he 
briefly replied. Escorted into the town on the 7th of 
November, he was received by a prodigious assemblage 
of citizens and all the militia companies of the vicinity, 
who welcomed him with an enthusiasm that can be im- 
agined. In the afternoon a grand banquet, attended by 
three hundred persons, was served in honor of the gen- 
eral. Among the distinguished guests was Thomas Jef- 
ferson, then seventy-two years of age, the most revered 
of American citizens then living. His residence was 
only a long day's ride from Lynchburg, and he had 
come to join in the festivities of this occasion. The toast 
offered by the ex-President at the banquet at Lynchburg 
has been variously reported, but in the newspapers of the 
day it is uniformly given in these words : " Honor and 
gratitude to those who have filled the measure of their 
country's honor." General Jackson volunteered a toast 
which was at once graceful and significant : " James 
Monroe, late Secretary of War " — graceful, because Mr. 



250 



GENERAL JACKSON. 



Monroe was a Virginian, a friend of Mr. Jefferson, and 
had nobly co-operated with himself in the defense of 
New Orleans; significant, because Mr. Monroe M-as a 
very prominent candidate for the presidency, and the 
election was drawing near. 

To horse again the next morning. Nine days' riding 
brought the general to Washington, which he reached 
in the evening of November 17th. He called the next 
morning upon the President and the members of the 
Cabinet, by whom he was welcomed to the capital with 
every mark of cordiality and respect. His stay at Wash- 
ington, I need not say, was an almost ceaseless round of 
festivity. A great public dinner was given him, which 
was attended by all that Washington could boast of the 
eminent and the eloquent. He was lionized severely at 
private entertainments, where the stateliness of his bear- 
ing and the suavity of his manners pleased the gentle- 
men and won the ladies. And this was to be one of the 
•conditions of his lot thenceforward to the end of his life. 
He was the darling of the nation. Nothing had yet oc- 
curred to dim the luster of his fame. His giant popu- 
larity was in the flush of its youth. He could go no- 
where without incurring an ovation, and every movement 
of his was affectionately chronicled in the newspapers. 

General Jackson was to remain in the army ! Upon 
the conclusion of peace with Great Britain the army was 
reduced to ten thousand men, commanded by two major- 
generals, one of whom was to reside at the North and 
command the troops stationed there, and the other to 
bear military sway at the South. The generals selected 
for these commands were General Jacob Brown for the 
Northern division, and General Andrew Jackson for the 
Southern, both of whom had entered the service at the 
beginnmg of the late war as generals of militia. Gen- 
eral Jackson's visit to Washington on this occasion was 



COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 25 1 

in obedience to an order, couched in the language of an 
invitation, received from the Secretary of War soon after 
his return from New Orleans ; the object of his visit be- 
ing to arrange the posts and stations of the army. The 
feeling was general at the time that the disasters of the 
War of 181 2 were chiefly due to the defenseless and un- 
prepared condition of the country, and that it was the 
first duty of the Government, on the return of peace, to 
see to it that the assailable points were fortified. " Let 
us never be caught napping again " ; " In time of peace 
prepare for war," were popular sayings then. On these 
and all other subjects connected with the defense of the 
country the advice of General Jackson was asked and 
given. His own duty, it was evident, was first of all to 
pacify, and if possible satisfy, the restless and sorrowful 
Indians in the Southwest. The vanquished tribe, it was 
agreed, should be dealt with forbearingly and liberally. 
The general undertook to go in person into the Indian 
country and remove from their minds all discontent. 
He did so. 

It is not possible to overstate his popularity in his 
own State. He was its pride, boast, and glory. Tennes- 
seeans felt a personal interest in his honor and success. 
His old enemies either sought reconciliation with him or 
kept their enmity to themselves. His rank in the army, 
too, gave him unequaled social eminence ; and, to add to 
the other felicities of his lot, his fortune now rapidly in- 
creased, as the entire income of his estate could be added 
to his capital, the pay of a major-general being suffi- 
cient for the support of his family. He was forty-nine 
years old in 1816. He had riches, rank, power, renown, 
and all in full measure. 

But in 1817 there was trouble again among the In- 
dians — the Indians of Florida, the allies of Great Britain 
during the War of 181 2, commonly known by the name 



252 GENERAL JACKSON. 

of Seminoles. Composed in part of fugitive Creeks, who 
scouted the treaty of Fort Jackson, they had indulged 
the expectation that on the conclusion of peace they 
would be restored by their powerful ally to the lands 
wrested from the Creeks by Jackson's conquering army 
in 1814. This poor remnant of tribes once so numerous 
and powerful had not a thought, at first, of attempting 
to regain the lost lands by force of arms. The best testi- 
mony now procurable confirms their own solemnly reit- 
erated assertions that they long desired and endeavored 
to live in peace with the white settlers of Georgia. All 
their " talks," petitions, remonstrances, letters, of which 
a large number are still accessible, breathe only the wish 
for peace and fair dealing. The Seminoles were drawn 
at last into a collision with the United States by a chain 
of circumstances with which they had little to do, and 
the responsibility of which belongs not to them. 

Fourteen miles east of Fort Scott, in Georgia, but 
near the Florida line, on lands claimed by the United 
States under the treaty of Fort Jackson, was a Seminole 
village called by the settlers Fowltown. The chief of 
this village of forty-five warriors was supposed to be, 
and was, peculiarly embittered against the whites. The 
red war-pole had been erected by his warriors, around 
which they danced the war-dance. The Fowltown chief 
was resolved to hold his lands, and resist by force any 
further encroachments, and had said as much to Colonel 
Twiggs, the commandant of Fort Scott. *' I warn you," 
he said to Colonel Twiggs, early in November, " not to 
cross, nor cut a stick of wood, on the east side of the 
Flint. That land is mine. I am directed by the powers 
above and the powers below to protect and defend it. I 
shall do so." A few days after, General Gaines arrived 
at Fort Scott with a re-enforcement of regular troops, 
when the talk of the Fowltown chief was reported to 



COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 253 

him. General Gaines," to ascertain," as he said, " whether 
his hostile temper had abated," had previously sent a 
runner to the chief to request him to come to him at 
Fort Scott. The chief replied : " I have already said to 
the officer commanding at the fort all I have to say. I 
will not go." 

General Gaines immediately detached a force of two 
hundred and fifty men, under command of Colonel Twiggs, 
with orders " to bring to me the chief and his warriors, 
and, in the event of resistance, to treat them as enemies." 

On the morning of November 21st, before the dawn 
of day, the detachment reached Fowltown. The war- 
riors fired upon the troops without waiting to learn their 
errand. It could not be expected to occur to the be- 
nighted Seminole mind that a large body of troops, 
arriving near their town in the darkness of a November 
morning, could have any but a hostile errand. The fire 
of the Indians, which was wholly without effect, was 
" briskly returned " by the troops, when the Indians took 
to flight, with the loss of two men and one woman killed, 
besides several wounded. Colonel Twiggs entered and 
searched the abandoned town. Among other articles 
found in the house of the chief were a scarlet coat of the 
British uniform, a pair of golden epaulets, and a certifi- 
cate in the handwriting of Colonel Nichols, declaring 
that the Fowltown chief had ever been a true and faith- 
ful friend of the British. Colonel Twiggs took post near 
the town, erected a temporary stockade, and waited for 
further orders. Shortly .afterward the town was burned 
by General Gaines himself. 

The die was cast. The revenge of the Seminoles for 
this seizure of Fowltown and the slaughter of its war- 
riors and the woman was swift, bloody, and atrocious. 

Nine days after, a large open boat, containing forty 
United States troops, seven soldiers' wives, and four lit- 



254 GENERAL JACKSON. 

tie children, under command of Lieutenant Scott, of the 
Seventh Infantry, was warping slowly up the Appalachi- 
cola River. They were within one mile of reaching the 
junction of the Chattahoochee and Flint, and not many 
miles from Fort Scott. To avoid the swift current, the 
soldiers kept the boat close to the shore. They were 
passing a swamp densely covered with trees and cane. 
Suddenly, at a moment when not a soul on board sus- 
pected danger, for not an Indian nor trace of an Indian 
had been seen, a heavy volley of musketry from the 
thickets within a few yards of the boat was fired full 
into the closely compacted party. Lieutenant Scott and 
nearly every man in the boat were killed or badly 
wounded at the first fire. Other volleys succeeded. The 
Indians soon rose from their ambush and rushed upon 
the boat with a fearful yell. Men, women, and children 
were involved in one horrible massacre, or spared for 
more horrible torture. The children were taken by the 
heels and their brains dashed out against the sides of the 
boat. The men and women were scalped, all but one 
woman, who was not wounded by the previous fire. 
Four men escaped by leaping overboard and swimming 
to the opposite shore, of whom two only reached Fort 
Scott uninjured. Laden with plunder, the savages re-en- 
tered the wilderness, taking with them the woman whom 
they had spared. In twenty minutes after the first 
volley was fired into the boat, every creature in it but 
five was killed and scalped, or bound and carried off. 

The Seminoles had tasted blood, and thirsted like 
tigers for more. Still haunting the banks of the river, 
they attacked, a few days later, a convoy of ascending 
boats, under Major Muhlenberg, killing two soldiers and 
wounding thirteen. For four or five days and nights the 
boats lay in the middle of the stream, immovable, for 
not a man could show himself for an instant above the 



COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 255 

bulwarks without being fired upon. With difficulty, and 
after great suffering on the part of the sick and wounded, 
the fleet was rescued from its horrible situation by a 
party from Fort Scott. 

Before the year closed Fort Scott itself was threat- 
ened. A desultory and ineffectual fire was kept up upon 
it for several days. The garrison, being short of provis- 
ions, and forming a most exaggerated estimate of the 
numbers of the enemy, feared to be obliged to abandon 
the post. This was war indeed. The Government at 
Washington was promptly informed of these terrible 
events by General Gaines, who advised the most vigor- 
ous measures of retaliation. It chanced that, just before 
these dispatches reached Washington, the Secretary of 
War, Mr. John C. Calhoun, not anticipating serious 
trouble from the Indians, had sent orders to General 
Games to proceed to Amelia Island. General Gaines 
was accordingly compelled to leave the frontiers at a 
time when his presence there was most needed. The 
Government, fearing the effect at such a moment of the 
absence of a general officer from the scene of hostilities, 
resolved upon ordering General Jackson to take com- 
mand in person of the troops upon the frontiers of 
Georgia. 

On the 226. of January, General Jackson and his 
"guard" left Nashville amid the cheers of the entire 
population. The distance from Nashville to Fort Scott 
is about four hundred and fifty miles. In the even- 
ing of March 9th, forty-six days after leaving Nashville, 
he reached Fort Scott with eleven hundred hungry men. 
No tidings yet of the Tennessee troops under Colonel 
Hayne ! There was no time to spend, however, in wait- 
ing or surmising. The general found himself at Fort 
Scott in command of two thousand men, and his whole 
stock of provisions one quart of corn and three rations 



2^6 GENERAL JACKSON. 

of meat per man. There was no supply in his rear, for 
he had swept the country on his line of march of every 
bushel of corn and every animal fit for food. He had 
his choice of two courses only : to remain at Fort Scott 
and starve, or to go forward and find provisions. It is 
not necessary to say which of these alternatives Andrew 
Jackson selected. " Accordingly," he wrote, " having 
been advised by Colonel Gibson, quartermaster-general, 
that he would sail from New Orleans on the 12th of Feb- 
ruary with supplies, and being also advised that two 
sloops with provisions were in the bay, and an officer 
had been dispatched from Fort Scott in a large keel-boat 
to bring up a part of their loading, and deeming that 
the preservation of these supplies would be to preserve 
the army, and enable me to prosecute the campaign, I 
assumed the command on the morning of the loth, 
ordered the live stock to be slaughtered and issued to 
the troops, with one quart of corn to each man, and the 
line of march to be taken up at twelve meridian." 

It was necessary to cross the swollen river, an oper- 
ation which consumed all the afternoon, all the dark 
night succeeding, and a part of the next morning. Five 
days' march along the banks of the Appalachicola — past 
the scene of the massacre of Lieutenant Scott — brought 
the army to the site of the old Negro Fort on Prospect 
Bluff. On the way, however, the army, to its great joy, 
met the ascending boat-load of flour, when the men had 
their first full meal since leaving Fort Early, three 
weeks before. Upon the site of the Negro Fort, General 
Jackson ordered his aide. Lieutenant Gadsden, of the en- 
gineers, to construct a fortification, which was promptly 
done, and named by the general Fort Gadsden, in honor, 
as he said, of the '' talents and indefatigable zeal " of tjje 
builder. No news yet of the great flotilla of provisions 
from New Orleans. '^ Consequently," wrote the general, 



GOMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 257 

** I put the troops on half rations, and pushed the com- 
pletion of the fort for the protection of the provisions 
in the event of their arrival, intending to march forth- 
with to the heart of the enemy and endeavor to subsist 
upon him. In the meantime I dispatched Major Fan- 
ning of the corps, of artillery, to take another look into 
the bay, whose return on the morning of the 23d brought 
the information that Colonel Gibson, with one gunboat 
and three transports and others in sight, were in the bay. 
On the same night I received other information that no 
more had arrived. I am therefore apprehensive that 
some of the smaller vessels have been lost, as one gun- 
boat went to pieces, and another, when last spoken, had 
one foot of water in her." 

The Tennessee volunteers did not arrive, but had 
been heard from. " The idea of starvation," wrote Gen- 
eral Jackson, " has stalked abroad. A panic appears to 
have spread itself everywhere." Colonel Hayne had 
heard that the garrison of Fort Scott were starving, and 
had passed into Georgia for supplies, despite the willing- 
ness of the men " to risk the worst of consequences on 
what they had to join me." General Gaines, however, 
joined the army at Fort Gadsden, though in sorry plight. 
*' In his passage down the Flint," explains Jackson, " he 
was shipwrecked, by which he lost his assistant adjutant- 
general, Major C. Wright, and two soldiers drowned. 
The general reached me six days after, nearly exhausted 
by hunger and cold, having lost his baggage and cloth- 
ing, and being compelled to wander in the woods four 
days and a half without anything to subsist on, or any 
clothing except a pair of pantaloons. I am happy to 
have it in my power to say that he is now with me, at 
the head of his brigade, in good health." 

Nine days passed, and still the general was at Fort 
Gadsden waiting for the great flotilla. It occurred to 



258 GENERAL JACKSON. 

him that possibly the Governor of Pensacola might have 
opposed its ascent of the river or molested it in the bay. 
He wrote a very polite but very plain letter to the Gov- 
ernor on the 25th of March. " I wish it to be distinctly 
understood," he observed, "that any attempt to inter- 
rupt the passage of transports can not be viewed in any 
other light than as a hostile act on your part. I will not 
permit myself for a moment to believe that you would 
commit an act so contrary to the interests of the King 
your master. His Catholic Majesty, as well as the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, is alike interested in 
chastising a savage foe who have too long warred with 
impunity against his subjects as well as the citizens of 
this republic, and I feel persuaded that every aid which 
you can give to promote this object will be cheerfully 
tendered." 

The Governor in due time replied that he would per- 
mit the transports to pass this time, on condition of their 
paying the usual duties, but never again. " If extraordi- 
nary circumstances," he concluded, " should require any 
further temporary concessions, not explained in the 
treaty, I request your Excellency to have the goodness 
to apply in future, for the obtaining of them, to the 
proper authority, as I, for my part, possess no power 
whatever in relation thereto." 

Before the day closed on which the general wrote his 
plain letter to the Governor of Pensacola he had the 
pleasure of hearing that the provision flotilla had arrived, 
and of welcoming to Fort Gadsden its commanding offi- 
cers. Colonel Gibson of the army and Captain McKeever 
of the navy. He was writing a dispatch at the time to 
the Secretary of War, which he hastened to close with this 
most gratifying intelligence : " I shall move to-morrow," 
he said, " having made the necessary arrangements with 
Captain McKeever for his co-operation in transporting 



COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 



259 



my supplies around to the Bay of St. Marks, from which 
place I shall do myself the honor of communicating with 
you. Should our enemy attempt to escape with his sup- 
plies and booty to the small islands, and thence to carry 
on a predatory warfare, the assistance of the navy will 
prevent his escape." 

General Jackson on the following day was in full 
march toward St. Marks. He left Fort Gadsden on the 
26th of March, was joined by one regiment of Tennes- 
seeans on the ist of April, and on the same day had a 
brush with the enemy. A " number " of Indians, we are 
told in the official report, were discovered engaged in 
the peaceful employment of " herding cattle." An attack 
upon these dusky herdsmen was instantly ordered. One 
American killed and four wounded, fourteen Indians 
killed and four women prisoners, were the results of this 
affair. The army advanced upon the town to which the 
herdsmen belonged, and found it deserted. " On reach- 
ing the square, we discovered a red pole planted at the 
council house, on which was suspended about fifty fresh 
scalps, taken from the heads of extreme age down to the 
tender infant, of both sexes; and in an adjacent house 
those of nearly three hundred men, which bore the ap- 
pearance of being the barbarous trophies of settled 
hostility for three or four years past."* 

General Gaines continued the pursuit on the follow- 
ing day, and gathered a prodigious booty. " The red 
pole," says the adjutant's report, "was again found 
planted in the square of Fowltown, barbarously deco- 
rated with human scalps of both sexes, taken within the 
last six months from the heads of our unfortunate citi- 
zens. General Mcintosh, who was with General Gaines 

* These scalps were doubtless the accumulation of many years and 
of previous wars. The Seminoles had not taken ten scalps since the 
War of 1812, exclusive of those of Lieutenant Scott's party. 



26o GENERAL JACKSON. 

routed a small party of savages near Fowltown, killed 
one negro and took three prisoners, on one of whom was 
found the coat of James Champion, of Captain Cum- 
ming's company, Fourth Regiment of Infantry, who was 
killed by the Indians on board of one of our boats 
descendmg the river to the relief of Major Muhlenburg. 
The pocket-book of Mr. Leigh, who was murdered at 
Cedar Creek on the 21st of January last, was found, 
in Kinghajah's town, containing several letters ad- 
dressed to the deceased, and one to General Glascock. 
About one thousand head of cattle fell into our hands, 
many of which were recognized by the Georgia militia 
as having brands and marks of their citizens. Nearly three 
thousand bushels of corn were found, with other articles 
useful to the army. Upward of three hundred houses 
were consumed, leaving a tract of fertile country in ruin, 
where these wretches might have lived in plenty but for 
the vile machinations of foreign traders, if not agents." 
On the 6th of April the army reached St. Marks, and 
halted in the vicinity of the fort. The general sent in 
to the Governor his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Gadsden, 
bearing a letter explanatory of his objects and purposes. 
He had come, he said, " to chastise a savage foe, who, 
combined with a lawless band of negro brigands, had 
been for some time past carrying on a cruel and unpro- 
voked war against the citizens of the United States." 
He had already met and put to flight parties of the hos- 
tile Indians. He had received information that those 
Indians had fled to St. Marks and found protection 
within its walls; that both Indians and negroes had pro- 
cured supplies of ammunition there; and that the Span- 
ish garrison, from the smallness of its numbers, was un- 
able to resist the demands of the savages. " To prevent 
the recurrence of so gross a violation of neutrality, and 
to exclude our savage enemies from so strong a hold as 



COMMANDED OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 261 

St. Marks, I deem it expedient to garrison that fortress 
with American troops until the close of the present war. 
This measure is justifiable on the immutable principle of 
self-defense, and can not but be satisfactory, under exist- 
ing circumstances, to his Catholic Majesty the King of 
Spain." 

The Governor replied that he had been made to un- 
derstand General Jackson's letter only with the greatest 
difficulty, as there was no one within the fort who could 
properly translate it. He denied that the Indians and 
negroes had ever obtained supplies, succor, or encour- 
agement from Fort St. Marks. On the contrary, they 
had menaced the fort with assault because supplies had 
been refused them. With regard to delivering up the 
fort intrusted to his care, he had no authority to do so, 
and must write on the subject to his Government. Mean- 
while he prayed General Jackson to suspend his opera- 
tions. " The sick your Excellency sent in," concluded 
the polite Governor, "are lodged in the Royal Hospital, 
and I have afforded them every aid which circumstances 
admit. I hope your Excellency will give me other oppor- 
tunities of evincing the desire I have to satisfy you. I 
trust your Excellency will pardon my not answering you 
as soon as requested, for reasons which have been given 
you by your aide-de-camp. I do not accompany this 
with an English translation, as your Excellency desires, 
because there is no one in the fort capable thereof, but 
the before-named William Hambly proposes to translate 
it to your Excellency in the best manner he can." 

This was delivered to General Jackson on the morn- 
ing of the 7th of April. He instantly replied to it by 
taking possession of the fort ! The Spanish flag was 
lowered, the Stars and Stripes floated from the flagstaff, 
and American troops took up their quarters within the 
fortress. The Governor made no resistance, and indeed 
18 



262 GENERAL JACKSON. 

could make none. When all was over, he sent to General 
Jackson a formal protest against his proceedings, to 
which the general briefly replied : *' The occupancy of 
Fort St. Marks by my troops previous to your assenting 
to the measure became necessary from the difficulties 
thrown in the way of an amicable adjustment, notwith- 
standing my assurances that every arrangement should 
be made to your satisfaction, and expressing a wnsh that 
my movements against our common enemy should not 
be retarded by a tedious negotiation. I again repeat 
what has been reiterated to you through my aide-de- 
camp. Lieutenant Gadsden, that your personal rights 
and private property shall be respected, that your situa- 
tion shall be made as comfortable as practicable while 
compelled to remain in Fort St. Marks, and that trans- 
ports shall be furnished, as soon as they can be obtained 
to convey yourself, family, and command to Pensacola." 

Alexander Arbuthnot, a Scotch trader among the In- 
dians, was found within the fort, an inmate of the Gov- 
ernor's own quarters. It appears that on the arrival of 
General Jackson he was preparing to leave St. Marks. 
His horse, saddled and bridled, was standing at the gate. 
General Jackson had no sooner taken possession of St. 
Marks than Arbuthnot became a prisoner. *' In Fort St. 
Marks," wrote General Jackson, " an inmate in the fam- 
ily of the Spanish commandant, an Englishman by the 
name of Arbuthnot was found. Unable satisfactorily to 
explain the object of his visiting this country, and there 
being a combination of circumstances to justify a sus- 
picion that his views were not honest, he was ordered 
into close confinement." 

For two days only the army remained at Fort St. 
Marks. Suwanee, the far-famed and dread Suwanee, 
the town of the great chief Boleck, or Bowlegs, the 
refuge of negroes, was General Jackson's next object. 



COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 263 

It was one hundred and seven miles from St. Marks, 
and the route lay through a flat and swampy wilderness, 
little known and destitute of forage. On the 9th of 
April, leaving a strong garrison at the fort, and supply- 
ing the troops with rations for eight days, the general 
again plunged into the forest — the white troops in ad- 
vance, the Indians, under General Mcintosh, a few miles 
m the rear. 

The army made slow progress, wading through ex- 
tensive sheets of water ; the horses starving for want of 
forage, and giving out daily in large numbers. Late in 
the afternoon of the third day the troops reached a 
" remarkable pond," which the Indian guides said was 
only six miles from Suwanee town. " Here," says the 
general, " I should have halted for the night had not six 
mounted Indians (supposed to be spies), who were dis- 
covered, effected their escape. This determined me to 
attempt by a forced movement to prevent the removal 
of their effects, and, if possible, themselves from cross- 
ing the river, for, my rations being out, it was all-im- 
portant to secure their supplies for the subsistence of 
my troops." At sunset, accordingly, the lines were 
formed, and the whole army rushed forward. 

But the prey had been forewarned. A letter from 
Arbuthnot to his son had reached the place and had 
been explained to Bowlegs, who had been ever since 
employed in sending the women and children across the 
broad Suwanee into those inaccessible retreats which 
render Florida the best place in the world for such 
warfare as Indians wage. The troops reached the vicin- 
ity of the town, and in a few minutes drove out the 
enemy and captured the place. The pursuit was con- 
tinued on the following morning by General Gaines ; 
but the foe had vanished by a hundred paths, and were 
no more seen. 



264 GENERAL JACKSON. 

In the evening of April 17th the whole army en- 
camped on the level banks of the Suwanee. In the 
dead of night an incident occurred which can here be 
related in the language of the same young Tennessee 
officer who has already narrated for us the capture of 
the chiefs and their execution. Fortunately for us, he 
kept a journal of the campaign. This journal, written 
at the time partly with a decoction of roots and partly 
with the blood of the journalist* — for ink was not attain- 
able — lay for forty years among his papers, and was 
copied at length by the obliging hand of his daughter 
for the readers of these pages. " About midnight of 
April i8th," wrote our journalist, " the repose of the 
army, then bivouacked on the plains of the old town 
of Suwanee, was suddenly disturbed by the deep-toned 
report of a musket, instantly followed by the sharp 
crack of the American rifle. The signal to arms was 
given, and where but a moment before could only be 
heard the measured tread of the sentinels and the low 
moaning of the long-leafed pines, now stood five thou- 
sand men, armed, watchful, and ready for action. The 
cause of the alarm was soon made known. Four men, 
two whites and two negroes, had been captured while at- 
tempting to enter the camp. They were taken in charge 
by the guard, and the army again sank to such repose 
as war allows her votaries. When morning came it was 
ascertained that the prisoners were Robert C. Ambrister, 
a white attendant named Peter B. Cook, and two negro 
servants — Ambrister being a nephew of the English gov- 
ernor, Cameron, of the Island of New Providence, an ex- 
lieutenant of British marines, and suspected of being 
engaged in the business of counseling and furnishing 
munitions of war to the Indians in furtherance of their 

* Mr. J. B. Rodgers, of South Rock Island, Tennessee. 



COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 265 

contest with the United States. Ignorant of the situa- 
tion of the American camp, he had blundered into it 
while endeavoring to reach Suwanee town to meet the 
Indians, being also unaware that the latter had been 
driven thence on the previous day by Jackson." 

Ambrister was conducted to St. Marks and placed in 
confinement, together with his companions. The fact 
that through Arbuthnot the Suwanee people had es- 
caped, thus rendering the last swift march comparatively 
fruitless, was calculated, it must be owned, to exasperate 
the mind of General Jackson. 

The Seminole War, so called, was over, for the time. 
On the 20th of April the Georgia troops marched home- 
ward to be disbanded. On the 24th, General Mcintosh 
and his brigade of Indians were dismissed. On the 25th, 
General Jackson, with his Tennesseeans and regulars, 
was again at Fort St. Marks. It was forty-six days 
since he had entered Florida, and thirteen weeks since 
he left Nashville. 

General Jackson, on his homeward march, halted at 
the fortress of St. Marks, to decide the fate of the 
prisoners Ambrister and Arbuthnot. He had deter- 
mined to accord them the indulgence of a trial, and now 
selected for that purpose a " special court " of fourteen 
officers, who were ordered to "lecord all the documents 
and testimony in the several cases, and their opinion as 
to the guilt or innocence of the prisoners, and what pun- 
ishment, if any, should be inflicted." 

At noon on the 28th of April the court convened. 
The members were sworn, and Arbuthnot was arraigned. 
The charges brought against him were three in number. 
First charge : Exciting the Creek Indians to war against 
the United States. Second charge: Acting as a spy, 
aiding and comforting the enemy, and supplying them 
with the means of war. Third charge: Exciting the 



266 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Indians to murder and destroy William Hambly and 
Edmund Doyle, and causing their arrest with a view to 
their condemnation to death and the seizure of their 
property, on account of their active and zealous exer- 
tions to maintain peace between Spain, the United 
States, and the Indians, they being citizens of the 
Spanish Government. 

The evidence adduced was of two kinds, documentary 
and personal. The letters and papers that were found 
on board the prisoner's schooner were all submitted to 
the court. They proved that the prisoner had sympa- 
thized with the Seminoles ; that he had considered them 
an injured people ; that he had written many letters en- 
treating the interference in their behalf of English, 
Spanish, and American authorities ; that he had given 
them notice of the approach of General Jackson's army, 
and advised them to fly ; that he had on all occasions 
exerted whatever influence he possessed to induce the 
Indians to live in peace with one another and with their 
neighbors. 

Arbuthnot in his defense called the captain of his 
vessel, who testified that no arms had been brought to 
the province by the prisoner, and but small quantities 
of powder and lead; and that Ambrister had seized the 
prisoner's schooner and used it for purposes of his own. 
Arbuthnot's address to the court at the conclusion of 
the trial was respectful, calm, and able. He commented 
chiefly upon the hearsay character of the evidence. The 
"trial" over, the prisoner was removed, and the court 
deliberated. Two thirds of the court concurred in the 
following opinion and sentence : " The court, after ma- 
ture deliberation on the evidence adduced, find the 
prisoner, A. Arbuthnot, guilty of the first charge, and 
guilty of the second charge, leaving out the words 
* acting as a spy ' ; and, after mature reflection, sentence 



COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 267 

him, A. Arbuthnot, to be suspended by the neck until 
he is dead." 

Ambrister was next arraigned. He was accused of 
aiding and comforting the enemy, and of " levying 
war against the United States," by assuming command 
of the Indians and ordering a party of them " to give 
battle to an army of the United States." It was proved 
against Ambrister that he had come to Florida to " see 
the negroes righted " ; that he had captured Arbuthnot's 
schooner, plundered his store, and distributed its con- 
tents among his negro and Indian followers; that he 
had written to New Providence asking that arms and 
ammunition might be sent to the Indians; and that he 
had sent a party to " oppose " the American invasion. 
The last-named fact was proved by a sentence in one of 
his own letters to the Governor of New Providence. " I 
expect," wrote Ambrister, March 20, 1818, " that the 
Americans and Indians will attack us daily. I have 
sent a party of men to oppose them." 

The prisoner made no formal defense, but merely 
remarked that, " inasmuch as the testimony which was 
introduced in this case was very explicit, and went to 
every point the prisoner could wish, he has nothing fur- 
ther to offer in his defense, but puts himself upon the 
mercy of the honorable court." 

The honorable court pronounced him guilty of the 
principal charge, and sentenced him to be shot. But we 
are told that, " one of the members of the court request- 
ing a reconsideration of his vote on the sentence, the 
sense of the court was taken thereon and decided in the 
affirmative, when the vote was again taken, and the 
court sentenced the prisoner to receive fifty stripes on 
his bare back, and to be confined with a ball and chain 
to hard labor for twelve calendar months." 

The trials, which began at noon on the 26th, termi- 



268 GENERAL JACKSON. 

nated late in the evening of the 28th, when the proceed- 
ings of the court were submitted to the commanding gen- 
eral. On the following morning, before the dawn of 
day, General Jackson and the main body of his army 
were in full march for Fort Gadsden. He left at St. 
Marks a garrison of American troops. The following 
order with regard to the court and the prisoners it had 
tried, issued just before his departure, was dated 

" Camp, four miles north of St. Marks, April 2% 1818. 

" The commanding general approves the finding and 
sentence of the court in the case of A. Arbuthnot, and 
approves the finding and first sentence of the court in 
the case of Robert C. Ambrister, and disapproves the 
reconsideration of the sentence of the honorable court 
in this case. 

** It appears, from the evidence and pleading of the 
prisoner, that he did lead and command within the terri- 
tory of Spain (being a subject of Great Britain) the In- 
dians in war against the United States, those nations 
being at peace. It is an established principle of the laws 
of nations that any individual of a nation making war 
against the citizens of any other nation, they being at 
peace, forfeits his allegiance and becomes an outlaw and 
pirate. This is the case of Robert C. Ambrister, clearly 
shown by the evidence adduced. 

" The commanding general orders that brevet Major 
A. C. W. Fanning, of the corps of artillery, will have, 
between the hours of 8 and 9 o'clock, A. m., A. Arbuth- 
not suspended by the neck with a rope until he is 
dead, and Robert C. Ambrister to be shot to death, agree- 
ably to the sentence of the court." 

The sentences of the general were immediately exe- 
cuted. It is difficult to characterize aright this deplor- 
able tragedy. Arbuthnot was put to death for acts every 



COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 269 

one of which was innocent, and some of which were emi- 
nently praiseworthy. Even Ambrister's fault was one 
which General Jackson himself would have been certain 
to commit in the same circumstances. He sent a party 
to " oppose " the invasion of the province ; and even his 
seizure of Arbuthnot's schooner seems to have been done 
to provide his followers with the means of defense. 
Arbuthnot was convicted upon the evidence of men who 
had the strongest interest in his conviction. And who 
presided over the court ? Was it not General Gaines, 
whose treatment of the Fowltown warriors, first arrogant 
and then precipitate, was the direct cause of the war and 
ail its horrors ? 

Of all the men concerned in this tragedy. General 
Jackson was perhaps the least blameworthy. We can 
survey the transaction in its completeness, but he could 
not. He carried out of the War of 181 2 the bitterest 
recollections of Nichols and Woodbine, who had given 
protection, succor, and honor to the fugitive Creeks. A 
train of circumstances led him to the conclusion that 
Arbuthnot and Ambrister were still doing the work in 
Florida that Nichols and Woodbine had begun in 1814. 
He expressly says, in one of his dispatches, that at the 
beginning of his operations he was " strongly impressed 
with the belief that this Indian war had been excited by 
some unprincipled foreign agents," and that the Semi- 
noles were too weak in numbers to have undertaken the 
war unless they had received assurances of foreign 
support. Woodbine had actually been in Florida the 
summer before, brought thither by Arbuthnot, To the 
" machinations " of these men General Jackson attrib- 
uted the massacre of Lieutenant Scott, and considered 
■ them equally guilty. They were at length in his power, 
and he then selected fourteen of''his officers to examine 
the evidence against them. After three days' investiga- 



2^0 GENERAL JACKSON. 

tion those officers brought in a verdict that accorded ex- 
actly with his own previous convictions, as well as with 
the representations of men who surrounded his person 
and had an interest in confirming his impressions. 

This is not a justification, for it is not permitted to 
any man to make mistakes of the kind that costs human 
lives. The execution of Ambrister had some slight 
shadow of justice, but that of poor Arbuthnot had none, 
and the violent death of that worthy old man must re- 
main a blot upon the memory of Andrew Jackson. The 
executions created in England such general and extreme 
indignation that nothing but the prudence of the minis- 
try prevented a war between the two countries. At home 
these sad events were little understood, and after a de- 
bate of a whole month upon them in Congress the con- 
duct of the general was approved. 

In 182 1, when Florida, after some years of negotia- 
tion, was ceded to the United States, General Jackson 
was appointed Governor of that Territory by President 
Monroe. He accepted the appointment, resigned his 
commission in the army, and set out on his journey. 
Delays vexatious but unavoidable occurred in the de- 
livery of the province, and even after he had taken pos- 
session the Governor was in the worst possible humor. 
Mrs. Jackson, who accompanied her fiery lord on this 
occasion, wrote home in August : " There never was a 
man more disappointed than the general has been. In 
the first place, he has not the power to appoint one of 
his friends; which, I thought, was in part the reason of 
his coming. But far has it exceeded every calculation ; 
it has almost taken his life. Captain Call says it is equal 
to the Seminole campaign. Well, I knew it would be a 
ruining concern. I shall not pretend to describe the toils, 
fatigue, and trouble. Those Spaniards had as lieve die 
as give up their country. He has had terrible scenes. 



COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 271 

The Governor has been put in the. calaboose, which is a 
terrible thing, really." Yes, the Spanish Governor, Colo- 
nel Callava, who of all the governors of Pensacola was 
by far the most agreeable and the most respectable 
character, had indeed been put into the calaboose. He 
was a Castilian, of a race akin to the Saxon, of light 
complexion, a handsome, well-grown man, of dignified 
presence and refined manners. If an angel from heaven 
had appeared to General Jackson in the guise of a Span- 
ish governor he would not have liked him, so rooted 
was his prejudice against Spanish governors. And that 
Spanish governor from heaven would have found it diffi- 
cult to so far forget or overlook what General Jackson 
had formerly done in Florida as to regard the general 
with an entirely friendly eye. The presence, therefore, 
of Colonel Callava in Pensacola — particularly after what 
had occurred previous to the surrender — furnished the 
material for a grand explosion, provided the Governor 
and the ex-Governor should by any accident come into 
collision. 

We need not dwell upon the details of this affair, 
which was more ludicrous than tragic. In a few months 
General Jackson resigned his office and resumed the life 
of a planter on the fertile shores of the Cumberland 
River. He reached the Hermitage November 3, 1821, 
unspeakably disgusted with his brief exercise of civil 
authority. He was then fifty-four years of age. Already 
he had lived, as it were, two lives. He had first assisted 
to subdue the Western wilderness, and then taken the 
lead in defending it. He had first broken the power of 
the Southern Indians, and then, by a series of treaties, 
regulated the terms upon which they were to live in 
neighborhood with the conquering race. He had first 
won by his diligence and skill a fair private estate, and 
then acquired, by his valor and conduct in war, national 



272 GENERAL JACKSON. 

renown and intense popularity. He might well think 
that he had done his part, had borne his share of private 
and public burdens, and might now, with impaired health 
and strength, sit down under his own vine and fig-tree 
and rest. That such was his sincere desire and real in- 
tention there are sufficient reasons to believe. Civil 
service he appears always to have accepted unwillingly, 
and resigned gladly. Nothing but a summons to the 
field ever completely overcame his reluctance to leave 
his happy home ; and now that the aspect of the world 
was such as to promise a lasting peace to his country, 
he had, doubtless, no thought but to pass his remaining 
days in the pleasant labors of his farm and the tranquil 
enjoyment of his home. ^ 



CHAPTER XIX. 

A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 

The presidential campaign of 1824 was the least in- 
structive one that ever occurred, because it was the 
most exclusively personal. But it was far from being 
the least exciting. The long lull in the political firma- 
ment had given every one a desire for a renewal of the 
old excitements, and there was everywhere an eager 
buzz of preparation. During the last three years of Mr. 
Monroe's second term the great topic of conversation 
throughout the country was, Who shall be our next 
President ? Five candidates were frequently mentioned, 
each of whom had devoted partisans : William H. Craw- 
ford, of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury ; John Quincy 
Adams, Secretary of State ; John C. Calhoun, Secretary 
of War; Henry Clay, Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives ; De Witt Clinton, Governor of New York — 
all strong, able, and popular men. But the name of 
Jackson had no sooner been presented to the nation by 
the Legislature of Tennessee, than it was discovered that 
his popularity was about to render him a most formida- 
ble competitor. To promote his presidential prospects 
his friends caused him to be elected to the Senate of the 
United States. Pennsylvania soon seconded his nomi- 
nation, and most of the Southern States showed a strong 
inclination to support him. Mr. Calhoun withdrew his 
own name in favor of the victor of New Orleans, and 
consented to stand for the vice-presidency. The pros- 



2>jA GENERAL JACKSON. 

pects of General Jackson were further improved by Mr. 
Crawford being stricken with paralysis, which totally 
prostrated him, and, in effect, narrowed the contest to 
Adams and Jackson. 

John C. Calhoun was elected Vice-President by a 
great majority. He received 182 electoral votes out of 
261. All New England voted for him except Connecti- 
cut and one electoral district of New Hampshire. Gen- 
eral Jackson received thirteen electoral votes for the 
vice-presidency, and was the choice of two entire states 
for that office — Connecticut and Missouri. 

Now for the presidency. Mr. Adams was the choice 
of seven States, General Jackson of eleven States, Mr. 
Clay of three States, Mr. Crawford of three States. Still 
no majority. The population of the United States in 
1820 was about nine and a half millions. The popula- 
tion of the three States which gave a majority for Mr. 
Clay was 1,212,337. The population of the three States 
which preferred Mr. Crawford was 1,497,029. The popu- 
lation of the seven States which gave a majority for Mr, 
Adams was 3,032,766. The population of the eleven 
States which voted for General Jackson was 3,757>756- 
It thus appears that General Jackson received more 
electoral votes, the vote of more States, and -the votes 
of more people, than any other candidate. Add to these 
facts that General Jackson was the second choice of^ 
Kentucky, Missouri, and Georgia, and it must be ad- 
mitted that he came nearer being elected by the people 
than any other candidate. He was, moreover, a gaining 
candidate ; every month added to his strength. 

The result was not known in all its details when the 
time came for Senator Jackson to begin his journey to 
Washington in the fall of 1824. That he was confident, 
however, of being the successful candidate, was indicated 
by Mrs. Jackson's accompanying him to the seat of gov- 



A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 275 

ernment. They traveled in their own coach-and-four, I 
believe, on this occasion. The opposition papers, at 
least, said so, and descanted upon the fact as an evidence 
of aristocratic pretensions ; considering it antidemocratic 
to employ four horses to draw a load that four horses 
sometimes could not tug a mile an hour, and were a 
month in getting to Washington. 

The people having failed to elect a President, it de- 
volved upon the House of Representatives, voting by 
States, each State having one vote to elect one from the 
three candidates who had received the highest number 
of electoral votes. A majority of States being necessary 
to an election, some one candidate had to secure the 
vote of thirteen States. The great question was to be 
decided on the 9th of February, 1825. 

The result, when announced by the tellers, surprised 
almost every one — surprised many of the best-informed 
politicians who heard it. Upon the first ballot, Mr. 
Adams received the vote of thirteen States, which was a 
majority. Maryland and Illinois, which had given 
popular majorities for Jackson, voted for Adams. Ken- 
tucky, Ohio, and Missouri, which had given popular ma- 
jorities for Clay, voted for Adams. Crawford received 
the vote of four States — Delaware, North Carolina, 
Georgia, and Virginia. General Jackson, for whom 
eleven States had given an electoral majority, received 
the vote of but seven States in the House. 

Was General Jackson, indeed, so heartily acquiescent 
in his defeat as he seemed to be? He was disappointed 
and indignant, believing that he had been defrauded of 
the presidency by a corrupt bargain between Mr. Adams 
and Mr. Clay. In this belief General Jackson lived and 
died. His partisans took up the cry, and made it the 
chief ground of opposition to Mr. Adams's adminis- 
tration. 



2^^ GENERAL JACKSON. 

General Jackson was renominated for the presidency 
by the Legislature of Tennessee before Mr. Adams had 
served one year. The general resigned his seat in the 
Senate, and entered heartily into the schemes of his 
friends. His popularity, great as it was before, seemed 
vastly increased by his late defeat, and by the belief, in- 
dustriously promulgated, that he had been cheated of 
the office to which the people desired to elevate him. 

The campaign of 1828 opened with a stunning flour- 
ish of trumpets. Louisiana, like New York, was a 
doubtful and troublesome State. In 1827 the Legis- 
lature of Louisiana, which had refused to recognize 
General Jackson's services in 1815, invited him to re- 
visit New Orleans, and unite with it in the celebration 
of the 8th of January, 1828, on the scene of his great 
victory. 

The reception of General Jackson at New Orleans 
on this occasion was, I presume, the most stupendous 
thing of the kind that had ever occurred in the United 
States. Delegations from States as distant as New York 
were sent to New Orleans to swell the eclat of the demon- 
stration. "The morning of the auspicious day," wrote 
an eyewitness, " dawned upon New Orleans. A thick 
mist covered the water and the land, and at ten o'clock 
began to rise into clouds; and when the sun at last 
appeared, it served only to show the darkness of the 
horizon threatening a storm in the north. It was at 
that moment the city became visible, with its steeples, 
and the forest of masts rising from the waters. At that 
instant, too, a fleet of steamboats was seen advancing 
toward the Pocahontas, which had now got under way, 
with twenty-four flags waving over her lofty decks. 
Two stupendous boats, lashed together, led the van. The 
whole fleet kept up a constant fire of artillery, which 
was answered from several ships in the harbor and from 



A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 277 

the shore. General Jackson stood on the back gallery 
of the Pocahontas, his head uncovered, conspicuous to 
the whole multitude, which literally covered the steam- 
boats, the shipping, and the surrounding shores. The 
van which bore the Revolutionary soldiers and the rem- 
nant of the old Orleans Battalion passed the Pocahontas, 
and, rounding to, fell down the stream, while acclama- 
tions of thousands of spectators rang from the river to 
the woods and back to the river. 

" In this order the fleet, consisting of eighteen steam- 
boats of the first class, passed close to the city, direct- 
ing their course toward the field of battle. When it was 
first descried, some horsemen only, the marshals of the 
day, had reached the ground ; but in a few minutes it 
seemed alive with a vast multitude, brought thither on 
horseback and in carriages, and poured forth from the 
steamboats. A line was formed by Generals Planche 
and Labaltat, and the committee repaired on board the 
Pocahontas, in order to invite the general to land and 
meet his brother-soldiers and fellow-citizens. I have no 
words to describe the scene which ensued." 

The festivities continued four days, at the expiration 
of which the general and his friends re-embarked on 
board the Pocahontas and returned homeward. 

The campaign now set in with its usual severity. Gen- 
eral Jackson was accused of every crime, offense, and im- 
propriety that man was ever known to be guilty of. His 
whole life was subject to the severest scrutiny. Every 
one of his duels, fights, and quarrels was narrated at 
length. His connection with Aaron Burr was, of course, 
a favorite theme. The mil'tary executions which he 
had ordered were all recounted.* John Binns, of Phila- 

* On February 21, 1815, in an open place near the (then) village of 
Mobile, the execution occurred of six militiamen, officers and privates, 
19 



2^8 GENERAL JACKSON. 

delphia, issued a series of handbills, each bearing the 
outline of a coffin-lid, upon which was printed an in- 
scription recording the death of one of these victims. 
Campaign papers were first started this year. One, en- 
titled We the People, and another, called The Anti-Jack- 
son Expositor, were particularly prominent. The con- 
duct of General Jackson in Florida during his governor- 
ship of that Territory was detailed. 

The number of electoral votes in 1828 was two hun- 
dred and sixty-one. One hundred and thirty-one was a 
majority. General Jackson received one hundred and 
seventy-eight ; Mr. Adams, eighty-three. 

In all Tennessee, Adams and Rush obtained less 
than three thousand votes. In many towns every vote 
was cast for Jackson and Calhoun. A distinguished 
member of the North Carolina Legislature told me that 
he happened to enter a Tennessee village in the evening 
of the last day of the presidential election of 1828. lie 
found the whole male population out hunting, the object 
of the chase being two of their fellow-citizens. He in- 
quired by what crime these men had rendered them- 
selves so obnoxious to their neighbors, and was in- 
formed that they had voted against General Jackson ! 
The village, it appeared, had set its heart upon sending 
up a unanimous vote for the general, and these two 
voters had frustrated its desire. As the day wore on, 
the whisky flowed more and more freely, and the result 
was a universal chase after the two voters, with a view 

convicted by a court-martial of " mutiny." A body of troops number- 
ing fifteen hundred were drawn up to witness the scen^; the men were 
blindfolded, and each man knelt upon his coffin. Thirty-six soldiers 
were detailed for the purpose, six to fire at each. The sentence was 
duly carried out, and for several years the country was excited over the 
event, and much adverse criticism of General Jackson found expression 
in the newspapers. — Editor. 



A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 



279 



to tarring and feathering them. They fled to the woods, 
however, and were not taken. 

The news of General Jackson's election to the presi- 
dency, I was informed by Major Lewis, created no great 
sensation at the Hermitage, so certain beforehand were 
its inmates of a result in accordance with their desires. 
Mrs. Jackson quietly said : 

"Well, for Mr. Jackson's sake, I am glad; for my 
own part, I never wished it." 

The people of Nashville, greatly elated by the suc- 
cess of their general, resolved to celebrate it in the 
way in which they had long been accustomed to cele- 
brate every important event in his career. A banquet 
unparalleled should be given in honor of his last tri- 
umph. The day appointed for this affair was the 23d 
of December, the anniversary of the night battle below 
New Orleans. General Jackson accepted the invitation 
to be present. Certain ladies of Nashville, meanwhile, 
were secretly preparing for Mrs. Jackson a magnificent 
wardrobe, suitable, as they thought, for the adornment 
of her person when, as mistress of the White House, she 
would be deemed the first lady in the nation. She was 
destined never to wear those splendid garments. 

For four or five years the health of Mrs. Jackson 
had been precarious. She had complained occasionally 
of an uneasy feeling about the region of the heart; and, 
during the late excitements, she had been subject to 
sharper pains and palpitation. She died December 22d, 
late in the evening. Her husband was shocked and 
grieved beyond expression. It was long, as I was as- 
sured by her favorite servant Hannah, before he would 
believe that she had really breathed her last. 

The sad news reached Nashville early on the morn- 
ing of the 23d, when already the committee of arrange- 
ments were busied with the preparations for the gen- 



28o GENERAL JACKSON. 

eral's reception. " The table was well-nigh spread," 
said one of the papers, " at which all was expected to be 
hilarity and joy, and our citizens had sallied forth on 
the morning with spirits light and buoyant, and counte- 
nances glowing with animation and hope, when suddenly 
the scene is changed: congratulations are turned into 
expressions of condolence, tears are substituted for 
smiles, and sincere and general mourning pervades the 
community." 

General Jackson never recovered from the shock of 
his wife's death. He was never quite the same man 
afterward. It subdued his spirit and corrected his 
speech. Except on occasions of extreme excitement, 
few and far between, he never again used what is com- 
monly called " profane language," not even the familiar 
phrase, " By the Eternal." There were times, of course, 
when his fiery passions asserted themselves; when he 
uttered wrathful words; when he wished even to throw 
off the robes of office, as he once said, that he might 
call his enemies to a dear account. But these were rare 
occurrences. He mourned deeply and ceaselessly the 
loss of his truest friend, and was often guided in his do- 
mestic affairs by what he supposed would have been her 
will if she had been there to make it known. 



CHAPTER XX. 

INAUGURATION. 

Haggard with grief and watching, "twenty years 
older in a night," as one of his friends remarked, the 
President-elect was compelled to enter without delay 
upon the labor of preparing for his journey to Washing- 
ton. His inaugural address was written at the house of 
Major Lewis, near Nashville. But one slight alteration 
was made in this document after the general reached 
the seat of government. Before leaving home, the 
general drew up a series of rules for the guidance of his 
administration, one of which was that no member of his 
Cabinet should be his successor. The party left Nash- 
ville on a Sunday afternoon about the middle of January. 
The journey to Washington — every one knows what it 
must have been. The complete, the instantaneous ac- 
quiescence of the people of the United States in the 
decision of a constitutional majority was well illustrated 
on this occasion. The steamboat that conveyed the 
general and his party down the Cumberland to the Ohio 
and up the Ohio to Pittsburg — a voyage of several days 
— was saluted or cheered as often as it passed a human 
habitation. At Cincinnati it seemed as if all Ohio, and 
at Pittsburg as if all Pennsylvania, had rushed forth to 
shout a welcome to the President-elect. Indeed, the 
whole country appeared to more than acquiesce in the 
result of the election. 

The day of the inauguration was one of the brightest 



282 GENERAL JACKSON. 

and balmiest of the spring. Mr. Webster, in his comic 
manner, remarks : " I never saw such a crowd here 
before. Persons have come five hundred miles to see 
General Jackson, and they really seem to think that the 
country is rescued from some dreadful danger!" The 
^-"^ ceremony over, the President drove from the Capitol to 
the White House, followed soon by a great part of the 
crowd who had witnessed the inauguration. Judge 
Story, a strenuous Adams man, did not enjoy the scene 
which the apartments of the " palace," as he styles it, 
presented on this occasion. " After the ceremony was 
over," he wrote, "the President went to the palace to 
receive company, and there he was visited by immense 
crowds of all sorts of people, from the highest and most 
polished down to the most vulgar and gross in the 
nation. I never saw such a mixture. The reign of 
King Mob seemed triumphant. I was glad to escape 
from the scene as soon as possible." 

Soon after General Jackson arrived at the seat of 
government he informed Edward Livingston, of Louisi- 
ana, that Mr. Van Buren was the foreordained Secretary 
of State of the incoming Administration, and offered 
him the choice of the seats remaining. Mr. Livingston, 
just then elected to the Senate, preferred his senatorship 
to any office in the Government except the one already 
appropriated. In distributing the six great offices, Gen- 
eral Jackson assigned two to the North, two to the West, 
and two to the South. 

Mr. Van Buren accepted the first place without hesi- 
tation, resigned the governorship of New York after 
holding it seventy days, and entered upon his duties at 
Washington three weeks after the inauguration. Samuel 
D. Ingham, of Pennsylvania, was appointed to the second 
place in the Cabinet — that of Secretary of the Treasury. 
John H. Eaton, Senator from Tennessee, was appointed 



INAUGURATION. 



283 



Secretary of War. General Jackson was, from the first, 
determined to have in his Cabinet one of his own Ten- 
nessee circle of friends, and Mr. Eaton was the one 
selected. The Navy Department was assigned to John 
Branch, for many years a Senator from North Carohna. 
John Macpherson Berrien, of Georgia, was appomted 
Attorney-General. William T. Barry, of Kentucky, was 
appointed Postmaster-General. Such was the first Cab- 
inet of the new President. With the exception of Mr. 
Van Buren, its members had no great influence over the 
measures of their chief, and play no important part in 
the general history of the times. 

No sooner had General Jackson announced the names 
of the gentlemen who were to compose his Cabinet, than 
an opposition to one of them manifested itself of a 
peculiar and most virulent character. Mr. Eaton, the 
President's friend and neighbor, was the object of this 
opposition, the grounds of which must be particularly 
stated, for it led to important results. A certain Wil- 
liam O'Neal kept at Washington for many years a large, 
old-fashioned tavern, where members of Congress in 
considerable numbers boarded during the sessions of 
the national Legislature. William O'Neal had a daughter, 
sprightly and beautiful, who aided him and his wife in 
entertaining his boarders. Peg O'Neal, as she was called, 
was so lively in her deportment, so free m her conversa- 
tion, that, had she been born twenty years later, she 
would have been called one of the " fast " girls of Wash- 
ington. 

When Major Eaton first came to Washington as a 
Senator of the United States, in the year 1818, he took 
board at Mr. O'Neal's tavern, and continued to reside 
there every winter for ten years. He became acquainted, 
of course, with the family, including the vivacious and 
attractive Peg. When General Jackson came to the city 



284 GENERAL JACKSON. 

as Senator in 1823, he also went to live with the O'Neals, 
whom he had known in Washington before it had become 
the seat of government. For Mrs. O'Neal, who was a 
remarkably efficient woman, he had a particular respect. 
Even during his presidency, when he was supposed to 
visit no one, it was one of his favorite relaxations, when 
worn out with business, to stroll with Major Lewis across 
the " old fields " near Washington to the cottage where 
Mrs. O'Neal lived in retirement, and enjoy an hour's 
chat with the old lady. Mrs. Jackson, also, during her 
residence in Washington in 1825, became attached to 
Mrs. O'Neal and to her daughter. 

In the course of time Miss O'Neal became the wife 
of Purser Timberlake, of the United States Navy, and 
the mother of two children. In 1828 came the news 
that Mr. Timberlake, then on duty in the Mediterranean, 
had cut his throat in a fit of melancholy, induced, it was 
said, by previous intoxication. On hearing this intelli- 
gence. Major Eaton, then a widower, felt an inclination 
to marry Mrs. Timberlake, for whom he had entertained 
an attachment quite as tender as a man could lawfully 
indulge for the wife of a friend aad brother-mason. He 
took the precaution to consult General Jackson on the 
subject. ** Why, yes, major," said the general, "if you 
love the woman, and she will have you, marry her, by all 
means." Major Eaton mentioned, what the general well 
knew, that Mrs. Timberlake's reputation in Washington 
had not escaped reproach, and that Major Eaton him- 
self was supposed to have been too intimate with her. 
" Well," said the general, " your marrying her will dis- 
prove these charges, and restore Peg's good name." 
And so, perhaps, it might, if Major Eaton had not been 
taken into the Cabinet. 

Eaton and Mrs. Timberlake were married in January, 
i8_29, a few weeks before General Jackson arrived at the 



INAUGURATION. 28$ 

seat of government. As soon as it was whispered about 
Washington that Major Eaton was to be a member of 
the new Cabinet, it occurred with great force to the 
minds of certain ladies, who supposed themselves to be 
at the head of society at the capital, that in that case 
Peg O'Neal would be the wife of a Cabinet minister, 
and, as such, entitled to admission into, their own sacred 
circle. 

From the moment the scandal reached his ears the 
new President made Mr. Eaton's cause his own. He 
sent a confidential agent to New York to investigate one 
of the stories. He wrote so many letters and statements 
in relation to this business that Major Lewis, who lived 
in the White House, was worn out with the nightly toil 
of copying. The entire mass of the secret and confi- 
dential writings relating to Mrs. Eaton, all dated in the 
summer and autumn of 1829, and most of them originally 
in General Jackson's hand, would fill about one hundred 
and sixty of these pages. And besides these, there was 
a large number of papers and documents not deemed 
important enough for preservation. General Jackson, 
indeed, brought to the defense of Mrs. Eaton all the fire 
and resolution with which, forty years before, he had 
silenced every whisper against Mrs. Jackson. He con- 
sidered the cases of the two ladies parallel. His zeal 
in behalf of Mrs. Eaton was a manifestation or conse- 
quence of his wrath against the calumniators of his wife. 
At length the President of the United States brought 
this matter before his Cabinet. The members of the 
Cabinet having assembled one day in the usual place, 
the accusers were brought before, them, when the Presi- 
dent endeavored to demonstrate that Mrs. Eaton was 
<* as chaste as snow." Whether the efforts of the Presi- 
dent had or had not the effect of convincing the ladies 
of Washington that Mrs. Eaton was worthy of admission 



286 GENERAL JACKSON. 

into their circle, shall in due time be related. Upon a 
point of that nature ladies are not convinced easily. 
Meanwhile, the suitors for presidential favor are advised 
to make themselves visible at the lady's receptions. 
A card in Mrs. Eaton's card-basket is not unlikely to be 
a winning card. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 

It is delightful to observe with what a scrupulous 
conscientiousness the early Presidents of this republic 
disposed of the places in their gift. Washington de- 
manded to be satisfied on three points with regard to an 
applicant for office : Is he honest ? Is he capable ? Has 
he the confidence of his fellow-citizens ? Not till these 
questions were satisfactorily answered did he deign to 
inquire respecting the political opinions of a candidate. 
Private friendship between the President and an appli- 
cant was absolutely an obstacle to his appointment, so 
fearful was the President of being swayed by private 
motives. " My friend," he says, in one of his letters, "I 
receive with cordial welcome. He is welcome to my 
house and welcome to my heart ; but, with all his good 
qualities, he is not a man of business. His opponent, 
with all his politics so hostile to me, is a man of busi- 
ness. My private feelings have nothing to do in the 
case. I am not George Washington, but President of 
the United States. As George Washington, I would do 
this man any kindness in my power ; as President of the 
United States, I can do nothing." The example of 
General Washington was followed by his successors. 

Up to the hour of the delivery of General Jackson's 
inaugural address it was supposed that the new Presi- 
dent would act upon the principles of his predecessors. 
In his former letters he had taken strong ground against 



288 GENERAL JACKSON. 

partisan appointments, and when he resigned his seat in 
the Senate he had advocated two amendments to the 
Constitution, designed to limit and purify the exercise of 
the appointing power. One of these proposed amend- 
ments forbade the re-election of a President, and the 
other the appointment of members of Congress to any 
office not judicial. 

The sun had not gone down upon the day of his 
inauguration before it was known in all official circles 
in Washington that the "reform " alluded to in the in- 
augural address meant a removal from office of all who 
had conspicuously opposed, and an appointment to office 
of those who had conspicuously aided, the election of 
the new President. The work was promptly begun. 
Colonel Benton will not be suspected of overstating the 
facts respecting the removals, but he admits that their 
number, during this year (1829) was six hundred and 
ninety. His estimate of six hundred and ninety does 
not include the little army of clerks and others who 
were at the disposal of some of the six hundred and 
ninety. The estimate of two thousand includes all who 
lost their places in consequence of General Jackson's 
accession to power ; and, though the exact number can 
not be ascertained, I presume it was not less than two 
thousand. Colonel Benton says that of the eight thou- 
sand postmasters, only four hundred and ninety-one 
were removed; but he does not add, as he might have 
added, that the four hundred and ninety-one vacated 
places comprised nearly all in the department that were 
worth having. Nor does he mention that the removal 
of the postmasters of half a dozen great cities was 
equivalent to the removal of many hundreds of clerks, 
bookkeepers, and carriers. 

In the eagerness of his desire to *' stand by his 
friends," the President was brought into collision with the 



TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 289 

Bank of the United States, a truly imposing and powerful 
institution in 1829. Its capital was thirty-five millions. 
The public money deposited in its vaults averaged six 
or seven millions ; its private deposits, six millions more ; 
its circulation, twelve millions; its discounts, more than 
forty millions a year ; its annual profits, more than three 
millions. Besides the parent bank at Philadelphia with 
its marble palace and hundred clerks, there were twenty- 
five branches in the towns and cities of the Union, each 
of which had its president, cashier, and board of direct- 
ors. The employees of the bank were more than five 
hundred in number, all men of standing and influence, 
all liberally salaried. In every county of the Union, in 
every nation on the globe, were stockholders of the 
Bank of the United States. One fifth of its stock was 
owned by foreigners. One fourth of its stock was held 
by women, orphans, and the trustees of charity funds- — 
so high, so unquestioned was its credit. Its bank notes 
were as good as gold in every part of the country. 
From Maine to Georgia, from Georgia to Astoria, a man 
could travel and pass these notes at every point with- 
out discount. Nay, in London, Paris, Rome, Cairo, Cal- 
cutta, or St. Petersburg, the notes of the Bank of the 
United States were worth a fraction more or a fraction 
less than their value at home, according to the current 
rate of exchange. They could usually be sold at a 
premium at the remotest commercial centers. It was 
not uncommon for the stock of the bank to be sold at a 
premium of forty per cent. The directors of this bank 
were twenty-five in number, of whom five were appoint- 
ed by the President of the United States. The bank 
and its branches received and disbursed the entire rev- 
enue of the nation. At the head of this great establish- 
ment was the once renowned Nicholas Biddle. 
y General Jackson had no thought of the bank until 



200 GENERAL JACKSON. 

he had been President two months. He came to Wash- 
ington anticipating but a single term, during which the 
question of rechartering the bank was not expected to 
come up. The bank was chartered in 1816 for twenty- 
years, which would not expire until 1836, three years 
after General Jackson hoped to be at the Hermitage 
once more, never to leave it. The first intercourse, too, 
between the bank and the new Administration was in 
the highest degree courteous and agreeable. A large 
payment was to be made of the public debt early in the 
summer, and the manner in which the bank managed 
that affair, at some loss and much inconvenience to 
itself, but greatly to the advantage of the public and to 
the credit of the Government, won from the Secretary of 
the Treasury a warm eulogium. 

But while this affair was going on so pleasantly, 
trouble was brewing in another quarter. Isaac Hill, 
from New Hampshire, then Second Comptroller of the 
treasury, was a great man at the White House. He had 
a grievance. Jeremiah Mason, one of the three great 
lawyers of New England, a Federalist, a friend of Daniel 
Webster and of Mr. Adams, had been appointed to the 
presidency of the branch of the United States Bank at 
Portsmouth, New Hampshire — much to the disgust of 
Isaac Hill and other Jackson men of that State. Isaac 
Hill desired the removal of Mr, Mason, and the appoint- 
ment in his place of a gentleman who was a friend of 
the new Administration. 

Mr. Hill caused petitions to be addressed to the 
directors of the bank, in which Mr. Mason was accused 
of partiality, haughtiness, mismanagement, and his re- 
moval demanded. Mr. Biddle went himself to Ports- 
mouth, where he spent six days in investigating the 
charges, and satisfied himself that they were groundless. 
He informed the Secretary of the Treasury, who had 



TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 29I 

addressed him on the subject, that the directors would 
not remove a faithful servant for political reasons. So 
the Bank of the United States triumphed over Isaac Hill 
and the Administration. It was a dear victory. 

Near the close of the new President's first message 
was the famous passage which sounded the first note of 
war against the United States Bank : " The charter of ^ 
the Bank of the United States expires in 1836, and its 
stockholders will most probably apply for a renewal of 
their privileges. In order to avoid the evils resulting 
from precipitancy in a measure involving such impor- 
tant principles and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel 
that I can not, in justice to the parties interested, too 
soon present it to the deliberate consideration of the 
Legislature and the people. Both the constitutionality 
and the expediency of the law creating this bank are 
well questioned by a large portion of our fellow-citi- 
zens; and it must be admitted by all that it has failed 
in the great end of establishing a uniform and sound 
currency." 

The Senate retorted by rejecting the nomination of 
Isaac Hill to the second comptroUership of the Treas- 
ury, which the President amended by causing Mr. Hill 
to be elected Senator from New Hampshire. Many 
other nominations were rejected, and the great bank in 
many ways frustrated and defied the President. After 
years of loud and vehement strife, the rechartering of 
the United States Bank was prevented by him, and it 
ceased to exist as a national institution. 

Congress met on the 7th of December, 1829. Such 
was the strength of the Administration in the House of 
Representatives, that Andrew Stephenson was re-elected 
to the speakership by one hundred and fifty-two votes 
out of one hundred and ninety-one. This Congress, 
however, came in with the Administration, and had been 



2Q2 GENERAL JACKSON. 

elected when General Jackson was elected. This was 
the session signalized by the great debate between Mr. 
Hayne and Mr. Webster, the first of many debates upon 
nullification. 

It had been a custom in Washington, for twenty 
years, to celebrate the birthday (April 13th) of Thomas 
Jefferson, the apostle of democracy. As General Jack- 
son was regarded by his party as the great restorer and 
exemplifier of Jeffersonian principles, it was natural that 
they should desire to celebrate the festival, this year, 
with more than usual eclat. It was so resolved. A 
banquet was the mode selected ; to which the President, 
the Vice-President, the Cabinet, many leading members 
of Congress, and other distinguished persons, were in- 
vited. When the regular toasts were over, the President 
was called upon for a volunteer, and gave it : " Our Fed- 
eral Union : It must be preserved." ^ 

Mr. Calhoun gave the next toast : " The Union ; 
Next to our liberty the most dear : may we all remember 
that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of 
the States, and distributing equally the benefit and bur- 
den of the Union." 

It was supposed, at the time, that the toast offered 
by the President was an impromptu. On the contrary, 
the toast was prepared with singular deliberation, and 
was designed to produce the precise effect it did pro- 
duce. Major Lewis favors the reader with the following 
interesting reminiscence : '' This celebrated toast, ' The 
Federal Union : It must be preserved,' was a cool, de- 
liberate act. The United States Telegraph, General 
Duff Green's paper, published a programme of the pro- 
ceedings for the celebration the day before, to which the 
general's attention had been drawn by a friend, with the 
suggestion that he had better read it. This he did in 
the course of the evening, and came to the conclusion 



TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 293 

that the celebration was to be a nullification affair alto- 
gether. With this impression on his mind, he prepared 
early the next morning (the day of the celebration) three 
toasts, which he brought with him when he came into his 
office, where he found Major Donelson and myself read- 
ing the morning papers. After taking his seat he handed 
them to me and asked me to read them, and tell him 
which I preferred. I ran my eye over them and then 
handed him the one I liked best. He handed them to 
Major Donelson also, with the same request, who, on 
reading them, agreed with me. He said he preferred 
that one himself, for the reason that it was shorter and 
more expressive. He then put that one into his pocket, 
and threw the others into the fire. That is the true his- 
tory of the toast the general gave on the Jefferson birth- 
day celebration in 1830, which fell among the nullifiers 
like an exploded bomb ! " 

The year 1829 had not closed before General Jackson 
was resolved to do all that in him lay to secure the elec- 
tion of Mr, Van Buren as his successor to the presidency. 
Nor did that year come to an end before he began to 
act in furtherance of the project. ''All through the 
sum.mer and fall of 1829," writes Major Lewis, "Gen- 
eral Jackson was in very feeble health, and in December 
of the same year his friends became seriously alarmed 
for his safety. It occurred to me that General Jackson's 
name, though he might be dead, would prove a powerful 
lever, if judiciously used, in raising Mr. Van Buren to 
the presidency. I therefore determined, to get the gen- 
eral, if possible, to write a letter to some friend, to be 
used at the next succeeding presidential election (in case 
of his death), expressive of the confidence he reposed 
in Mr. Van Buren's abilities, patriotism, and qualifica- 
tions for any station, even the highest within the gift of 
the people. He accordingly wrote a letter to his old 
20 



294 



GENERAL JACKSON. 



friend Judge Overton, and handed it to me to copy, wi-th 
authority to make such alterations as I might think 
proper. After copying it (having made only a few ver- 
bal alterations) I requested him to read it, and, if satis- 
fied with it, to sign it. He read it, and said it would do, 
and then put his name to it, remarking as he returned 
It to me : 

" ' If I die, you have my permission to make such use 
of it as you may think most desirable.' " 

The letter to Judge Overton contained these w^ords : 
" Permit me here to say of Mr. Van Buren, that I have 
found him everything that I could desire him to be, and 
believe him not only deserving my confidence but the 
confidence of the nation. Instead of his being selfish 
and intriguing, as has been represented by some of his 
opponents, I have ever found him frank, open, candid, 
and manly. As a counselor, he is able and prudent; re- 
publican in his principles, and one of the most pleasant 
men to do business with I ever saw. He, my dear friend, 
is well qualified to fill the highest office in the gift of the 
people, who in him will find a true friend and safe de- 
pository of their rights and liberty." 

Judge Overton, I believe, never knew the purpose 
for which this letter was written. The copy retained 
was signed by General Jackson and placed among the 
secret papers of Major Lewis, where it reposed until 
copied for the readers of these pages. 

A new man was summoned to the councils of the 
President — Lewis Cass, Governor of the Territory of 
Michigan, who was installed as head of the Department 
of War in July. The vacant attorney-generalship was 
conferred upon Mr. Roger B. Taney, then Attorney- 
General of Maryland, afterward the Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Taney was a 
lawyer of the first distinction in his native State. He 



TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 295 

was one of the Federalists who had given a zealous sup- 
port to General Jackson in 1828. 

At the next session of Congress the Senate confirmed 
the nominations of Edward Livingston, Louis McLane, 
Levi Woodbury, Lewis Cass, and Roger B. Taney, to 
their respective places in the Cabinet. Not so the nomi- 
nation of Mr. Van Buren to the post of British minister. 
Mr. Calhoun, at that time, in common with most of the 
opposition, attributed to the machinations of Mr. Van 
Buren his rupture with the President and the dissolution 
of the Cabinet. Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster were of the 
opinion that it was Mr. Van Buren who had induced the 
President to adopt the New York system of party re- 
movals. The leaders of the Senate resolved upon the 
rejection of Mr. Van Buren. 

The rejection secured Mr. Van Buren's political for- 
tune. His elevation to the presidency, long before de- 
sired and intended by General Jackson, became from 
that hour one of his darling objects. The "party," 
also, took him up with a unanimity and enthusiasm that 
left the wire-pullers of the White House little to do. 
Letters of remonstrance and approbation, signed by in- 
fluential members of the party, were sent over the sea to 
Mr. Van Buren, who soon found that his rejection was 
one of the most fortunate events of his public life. 

The last important act of President Jackson's first^" 
term was his veto of the bill to recharter the United 
States Bank, which he accompanied by a message of 
singular effectiveness. Concerning the financial and 
legal principles laid down in this important document 
financiers and lawyers differ in opinion. The ofiice of 
the present chronicler is to state that the bank-veto 
message of President Jackson came with convincing 
power upon a majority of the people of the United 
States. It settled the question. It was the singular 



2C)6 GENERAL JACKSON. 

fortune of the bank-veto message to delight equally the 
friends and foes of the bank. The opposition circulated 
It as a campaign document ! Duff Green published it in 
his extra Telegraph, calling upon all the opponents of 
the Administration to give it the widest publicity, since 
it would damn the Administration wherever it was read. 
The New York American characterized it thus: "It is 
indeed and verily beneath contempt. It is an appeal of 
ignorance to ignorance, of prejudice to prejudice, of the 
most unblushing partisan hostility to the obsequiousness 
of partisan servility. No man in the Cabinet proper will 
be willing to share the ignominy of preparing or ap- 
proving such a paper." 

Nicholas Biddle himself was enchanted with it, for 
he thought it had saved the bank by destroying the 
bank's great enemy. " You ask," he wrote to Henry 
Clay, " what is the effect of the veto } My impression 
is, that it is working as well as the friends of the bank 
and of the country could desire." 

The result of the election astonished everybody. 
Not the wildest Jackson man in his wildest moment had 
anticipated a victory quite so overwhelming. Two hun- 
dred and eighty-eight was the whole number of electoral 
votes in 1832. General Jackson received two hundred 
and nineteen — seventy-four more than a majority. Mr. 
Van Buren, for the vice-presidency, received one hun- 
dred and eighty-nine electoral votes — forty-four more 
than a majority. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE SECOND TERM. 

The triumphant re-election of General Jackson in 
1832 was a sore disappointment to Mr. Calhoun, and to 
his friends the "nullifiers " of South Carolina. 

The War of 181 2 left the country burdened with a debt 
of one hundred and thirty millions of dollars, and blessed 
with a great number of small manufactories. The debt 
and*the manufactories were both results of the war. By 
cutting off the supply of foreign manufactured articles, 
the war had produced upon the home manufacturing in- 
terests the effect of a prohibitory tariff. To pay the in- 
terest of this great debt, and occasional installments of 
the principal, it was necessary for the Government to 
raise a far larger revenue than had ever before been col- 
lected in the United States. The new manufacturing in- 
terests asked that the duties should be so regulated as 
to afford some part of that complete protection which 
the war had given it. The peace, that had been wel- 
comed with such wild delight in 1815, had prostrated 
entire branches of manufacture to which the war had 
given a sudden development. 

Among those who advocated the claims of the manu- 
facturers in the session of i8i5-'i6, and strove to have 
the protective principle permanently incorporated into 
the revenue legislation of Congress, the most active, the 
most zealous, was John C. Calhoun, member of the 
House of Representatives from South Carolina. He 



298 GENERAL JACKSON. 

Spoke often on the subject and he spoke unequivocally. 
Mr. Clay, who was then the friend, ally, and messmate 
of Mr. Calhoun, admitted that the Carolmian had sur- 
passed himself in the earnestness with which he labored 
in the cause of protection. One of his arguments was 
drawn from the condition of Poland at the time. " The 
country in Europe " said he, " having the most skillful 
workmen, is broken up. It is to us, if wisely used, more 
valuable than the repeal of the Edict of Nantes was to 
England. She had the prudence to profit by it ; let us 
not discover less political sagacity. Afford to inge- 
nuity and industry immediate and ample protection, 
and they will not fail to give a preference to this free 
and happy country." 

The protectionists, led by Messrs. Clay and Calhoun, 
triumphed in 1816. In the tariff bill of 1820 the prmci- 
ple was carried further, and still further in those of 1824 
and 1828. But about the year 1824 it began toSbe 
thought that the advantages of the system were enjoyed 
chiefly by the Northern States, and the South hastened 
Vto the conclusion that the protective system was the 
cause of its lagging behind. There was, accordingly, a 
considerable Southern opposition to the tariff of 1824, 
and a general Southern opposition to that of 1828. In 
the latter year, however, the South elected to the presi- 
dency General Jackson, whose votes and whose writings 
had committed him to the principle of protection. South- 
ern politicians felt that the general, as a Southern man, 
was more likely to further their views than Messrs. 
Adams and Clay, both of whom were peculiarly devoted 
to protection. 

As: the first years of General Jackson's adm^istration 
wore away without affording to the South the " relief " 
which they had hoped from it, the discontent of the 
Southern people increased. Circumstances gave them a 



THE SECOND TERM. 



299 



new and telling argument. In 183 1 the public debt had 
been so far diminished as to render it certain that in 
three years the last dollar of it would be paid. The 
Government had been collecting about twice as much 
revenue as its annual expenditures required. In three 
years, therefore, there would be an annual surplus of 
twelve or thirteen millions of dollars. The South de- 
manded with almost a united voice, that the duties 
should be reduced so as to make the revenue equal to 
the expenditure, and that, in making this reduction, the 
principle of protection should be, in effect, abandoned. 
Protection should thenceforth be " incidental " merely. 
The session of i83i-'32 was the one during which South- 
ern gentlemen hoped to effect this great change in the 
policy of the country. The President's message, as we 
have seen, also announced that, in view of the speedy 
extinction of the public debt, it was high time that Con- 
gress should prepare for the threatened surplus. 

The case was one of real difficulty. It was a case 
for a statesman. To reduce the revenue thirteen mil- 
lions, at one indiscriminate swoop, might close half the 
workshops in the country. At the same time, for the 
United States to go on raising thirteen millions a year 
more than was necessary for carrying on the govern- 
ment would have been an intolerable absurdity. 

Mr. Clay, after an absence from the halls of Congress 
of six years, returned to the Senate in December, 1831 
— an illustrious figure, the leader of the opposition, its 
candidate for the presidency, his old renown enhanced 
by his long exile from the scene of his well-remembered 
triumphs. The galleries filled when he was expected to 
speak. He was in the vigor of his prime. He never 
spoke so well as then, nor as often, nor so long, nor 
with so much applause. But he either could not or 
dared not undertake the choking of the surplus. What 



300 GENERAL JACKSON. 

wise, complete, far-reaching measure ^^^^ a candidate for 
the presidency link his fortunes to ? He wounded, with- 
out killing it ; and he was compelled, at a later day, to 
do what it had been glorious voluntarily to attempt in 
1832. He proposed merely that "the duties upon arti- 
cles imported from foreign countries, and not coming 
into competition with similar articles made or produced 
within the United States, be forthwith abolished, except 
the duties upon wines and silks, and that those be re- 
duced." After a debate of months' duration, a bill in 
accordance with this proposition passed both Houses, 
and was signed by the President. It preserved the pro- 
tective principle intact ; it reduced the income of the 
Government about three millions of dollars; and it m- 
flamed the discontent of the South to such a degree 
that one State, under the influence of a man of force, be- 
came capable of — nullification. 

The President signed the bill, as he told his friends, 
because he deemed it an approach to the measure re- 
quired. His influence, during the session, had been 
secretly exerted in favor of compromise. The President 
thought that the just course lay between the two ex- 
tremes of abandoning the protective principle and of 
reducing the duties in total disregard of it. 

Here was the opportunity of the nullifiers. A con- 
vention of the people of South Carolina met at Colum- 
bia, November 19, 1832, which passed an "ordinance" 
declaring that the tariff law of 1828, and the amendment 
to the same of 1832, were "null, void, and no law, nor 
binding upon this State, its officers or citizens," and that 
no duties enjoined by that law or its amendment * shall 
be paid, or permitted to be paid, in the State of South 
Carolina, after the first day of February, 1833." 

The message of the new Governor indorsed the acts 
of the convention in the strongest language possible. 



THE SECOND TERM. 



301 



"I recognize," said Governor Hayne, "no allegiance as 
paramount to that which the citizens of South Carolina 
owe to the State of their birth or their adoption." He 
said more : " If the sacred soil of Carolina should be 
polluted by the footsteps of an invader, or be stained 
with the blood of her citizens, shed in her defense, I 
trust in Almighty God that no son of hers, native or 
adopted, who has been nourished at her bosom, or been 
cherished by her bounty, will be found raising a parri- 
cidal arm against our common mother." 

The Legislature instantly responded to the message 
by passing the acts requisite for carrying the ordinance 
into practical effect. The Governor was authorized to 
accept the services of volunteers, who were to hold 
themselves in readiness to march at a moment's warn- 
ing. The State resounded with the noise of warlike 
preparation. Blue cockades with a palmetto button in 
the center appeared upon thousands of hats, bonnets, 
and bosoms. Medals were struck ere long, bearing this 
inscription : " John C. Calhoun, First President of the 
Southern Confederacy." The Legislature proceeded 
soon to fill the vacancy created in the Senate of the 
United States by the election of Mr. Hayne to the gov- 
ernorship. John C. Calhoun, Vice-President of the 
United States, was the individual selected, and Mr. Cal- 
houn accepted his seat. He resigned the vice-presi- 
dency, and began his journey to Washington in Decem- 
ber, leaving his State in the wildest ferment. 

The President baffled and brought to naught the mis- 
guided men who originated and sustained this alarming 
complication. General Winfield Scott was quietly or- 
dered to Charleston, for the purpose, as the President 
confidentially informed the collector, "of superintend- 
ing the safety of the ports of the United States in that 
vicinity." Other changes were made in the disposition 



,Q2 GENERAL JACKSON. 

of naval and military forces, designed to enable the 
President to act with swift efficiency if there should be 
occasion to act. If ever a man was resolved to accom- 
plish a purpose, General Jackson was resolved on this 
occasion to preserve intact the authority with which he 
had been intrusted. Nor can any language do justice to 
the fury of his contemptuous wrath against the author 
and fomenter of all this trouble. 

Congress met on the 3d of December, 1832. Mr. 
Calhoun had not reached Washington, and his intention 
to resign the vice-presidency was not known there. The 
message reveals few traces of the loud and threatening 
contentions amid which it was produced. The troubles 
in South Carolina were dismissed in a single paragraph, 
which expressed a hope of a speedy adjustment of the 
difficulty. 

While Congress was listening to this calm and sug- 
gestive message, the President was absorbed in the prep- 
aration of another document, and one of a very different 
description. A pamphlet containing the proceedings of 
the South Carolina Convention reached him on one of the 
last days of November. It moved him profoundly ; for 
this fiery spirit loved his country as few men have loved 
it. Though he regarded those proceedings as the fruit 
of John C. Calhoun's ambition and resentment, he rose 
on this occasion above personal considerations, and con- 
ducted himself with that union of daring and prudence 
which had given him such signal success in war. He 
went to his office alone, and began to dash off page after 
page of the memorable proclamation which was soon to 
electrify the country. He wrote with that great steel 
pen of his, and with such rapidity, that he was obliged 
to scatter the written pages all over the table to let them 
dry. A gentleman who came in when the President had 
written fifteen or twenty pages, observed that three of 



THE SECOND TERM. 303 

them were glistening with wet ink at the same moment. 
The warmth, the glow, the passion, the eloquence of 
that proclamation were produced then and there by the 
President's own hand. 

To these pages were added many more of notes and 
memoranda which had been accumulating in the Presi- 
dential hat for some weeks, and the whole collection was 
then placed in the hands of Mr. Livingston, the Secre- 
tary of State, who was requested to draw up the proc- 
lamation in proper form. Major Lewis writes to me: 
" Mr. Livingston took the papers to his office, and in 
the course of three or four days brought the proclama- 
tion to the general, and left it for his examination. After 
reading it, he came into my room and remarked that Mr. 
Livingston had not correctly understood his notes ; there 
were portions of the draft, he added, which were not in 
accordance with his views, and must be altered. He 
then sent his messenger for Mr. Livingston, and pointed 
out to him the passages which did not represent his views, 
and requested him to take it back with him and make 
the alterations he had suggested. This was done, and, 
the second draft being satisfactory, he ordered it to be 
published. I will add that, before the proclamation was 
sent to press to be published, I took the liberty of sug- 
gesting to the general whether it would not be best to 
leave out that portion to which, I was sure, the State- 
rights party would particularly object. He refused. 
" * Those are my views,* said he with great decision of 
manner, ' and I will not change them nor strike them 
out.' " 

This celebrated paper was dated December 11, 1832. 
The word proclamation does not describe it. It reads J 
more like the last appeal of a sorrowing but resolute 
father to wayward, misguided sons. Argument, warn- 
ing, and entreaty were blended in its composition. It 



^Q^ GENERAL JACKSON. 

began by calmly refuting, one by one, the leading posi- 
tions of the nullifiers. The rig/a to a?inul and the right 
to secede, as claimed by them, were shown to be incom- 
patible with the fundamental idea and main object of 
the Constitution, which was "to form a more perfect 
Union." That the tariff act complained of did operate 
unequally was granted, but so did every revenue law 
that had ever been or could ever be passed. The right 
of a State to secede'was strongly denied. "■ To say that 
any State may at pleasure secede from the Union, is to 
say that the United States are not a nation." The in- 
dividual States are not completely sovereign, for they 
voluntarily resigned part of their sovereignty. " How 
can that State be said to be sovereign and independent 
whose citizens owe obedience to laws not made by it, 
and whose magistrates are sworn to disregard those laws, 
when they come in conflict with those passed by an- 
other ?" 

Finally, the people of South Carolina were distinctly 
given to understand that, in case any forcible resistance 
to the laws were attempted by them, the attempt would 
be resisted by the combined power and resources of the 
other States. For one word, however, of this kind, there 
were a hundred of entreaty. " Fellow-citizens of my 
native State," exclaimed the President, " let me not only 
admonish you, as the First Magistrate of our common 
country, not to incur the penalty of its laws, but use 
the influence that a father would over his children whom 
he saw rushing to certain ruin. In that paternal lan- 
guage, with that paternal feeling, let me tell you, my 
countrymen, that you are deluded by men who are either 
deceived themselves or wish to deceive you." 

Such were the tone and manner of this celebrated 
proclamation. It was clear in statement, forcible in 
argument, vigorous in style, and glowing with the fire of 



THE SECOND TERM. 305 

a genuine and enlightened patriotism. The proclama- 
tion was received at the North with an enthusiasm that 
seemed unanimous, and was nearly so. The opposition 
press bestowed the warmest encomiums upon it. Three 
days after its appearance in the newspapers of New 
York, an immense meeting was held in the Park for the 
purpose of stamping it with metropolitan approval. 
Faneuil Hall, in Boston, was quick in responding to it, 
and there were Union meetings in every large town of 
the Northern States. In Tennessee, North Carolina, 
Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, Louisiana, and 
Kentucky the proclamation was generally approved as 
an act, though its extreme Federal positions found many 
opponents. 

In South Carolina, however, it did but inflame the 
prevailing excitement. The Legislature of that State, 
being still in session, immediately passed the following 
resolution : 

" Whereas, The President of the United States has 
issued his proclamation, denouncing the proceedings of 
this State, calling upon the citizens thereof to renounce 
their primary allegiance, and threatening them with mili- 
tary coercion, unwarranted by the Constitution and 
utterly inconsistent with the existence of a free State : 
Be it, therefore, 

''Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be re- 
quested forthwith to issue his proclamation, warning 
the good people of this State against the attempt of the 
President of the United States to seduce them from- 
their allegiance, exhorting them to disregard his vain 
menaces, and to be prepared to sustain the dignity and 
protect the liberty of the State against the arbitrary 
measures proposed by the President." 

Governor Hayne issued his proclamation according- 
ly, and a most pugnacious document it was. When the 



2o6 GENERAL JACKSON. 

proclamation reached Washington, the President forth- 
with replied to it by asking Congress for an increase of 
powers adequate to the impending collision. The mes- 
sage in which he made this request, dated January i6, 
1833, gave a brief history of events in South Carolina 
and of the measures hitherto adopted by the Admin- 
istration ; repeated the arguments of the recent procla- 
mation and added others ; stated the legal points 
involved, and asked of Congress such an increase of 
executive powers as would enable the Government, if 
necessary, to close ports of entry, remove threatened 
custom-houses, detain vessels, and protect from State 
prosecution such citizens of South Carolina as should 
choose or be compelled to pay the obnoxious duties. 

Mr. Calhoun was in his place in the Senate-chamber 
when this message was read. He had arrived two weeks 
before, after a journey which one of his biographers 
compares to that of Luther to the Diet of Worms. He 
met averted faces and estranged friends everywhere on 
his route, we are told ; and only now and then some 
daring man found courage to whisper in his ear, "If you 
are sincere, and are sure of your cause, go on, in God's 
name, and fear nothing." Washington was curious to 
know, we are further assured, what the arch-nullifier 
would do when the oath to support the Constitution of 
the United States was proposed to him. " The floor of the 
Senate-chamber and the galleries were thronged with 
spectators. They saw him take the oath with a solem- 
nity and dignity appropriate to the occasion, and then 
calmly seat himself on the right of the chair, among his 
old political friends, nearly all of whom were now ar- 
rayed against him." 

After the President's message had been read, Mr. Cal- 
houn rose to vindicate himself and his State, which he 
did with that singular blending of subtlety and force, 



THE SECOND TERM. 



307 



truth and sophistry, which characterized his later efforts. 
He declared himself still devoted to the Union, and said 
that, if the Government were restored to the principles 
of 1798, he would be the last man in the country to ques- 
tion its authority. ' 

A bill conceding to the President the additional 
powers requested in his message of January i6th was 
promptly reported and finally passed. It was nicknamed, 
at the time, the " Force Bill," and was debated with the 
heat and acrimony which might have been expected. As 
other measures of Congress rendered this bill unneces- 
sary, and it had no practical effect whatever, we need 
not dwell upon its provisions nor review the debates 
upon it. It passed, by majorities unusually large, late in 
February. 

The ist of February, the dreaded day which was to 
be the first of a fratricidal war, had gone by, and yet no 
hostile and no nullifying act had been done in South 
Carolina. How was this ? Did those warlike words 
mean nothing? Was South Carolina repentant? It is 
asserted by the old Jacksonians that one citizen of 
South Carolina was exceedingly frightened as the ist of 
February drew near, namely — John C. Calhoun. The 
President was resolved, and avowed his resolve, that the 
hour which brought the news of one act of violence on 
the part of the nullifiers, should find Mr. Calhoun a pris- 
oner of state upon a charge of high treason. And not 
Calhoun only, but every member of Congress from South 
Carolina who had taken part in the proceedings which 
had caused the conflict between South Carolina and the 
General Government. Whether this intention of the 
President had any effect upon the course of events, we 
can not know. It came to pass, however, that, a few 
days before the ist of February, a meeting of the lead- 
ing nullifiers was held in Charleston, who passed resolu- 



2o8 GENERAL JACKSON. 

tions to this effect : That, inasmuch as measures were 
then pending in Congress which contemplated the re- 
duction of duties demanded by South Carolina, the 
nullification of the existing revenue laws should be post- 
poned until after the adjournment of Congress; when 
the convention would reassemble, and take into con- 
sideration whatever revenue measures may have been 
passed by Congress. The session of 1833 being the 
" short " session, ending necessarily on the 4th of March, 
the Union was respited thirty days by the Charleston 
meeting. 

Which of these two bills was most in accordance with 
Mr. Calhoun's new opinions ? Which of them could he 
most consistently have supported ? Not Mr. Clay's. 
Yet it was Mr. Clay's bill that he did support and vote 
for; and Mr. Clay's bill was carried by the aid of his 
support and vote. 

Mr. Calhoun left Washington, and journeyed home- 
ward post-haste, after Congress adjourned. Traveling 
night and day by the most rapid public conveyances, he 
succeeded in reaching Columbia in time to meet the 
convention before they had taken any additional steps. 
Some of the more fiery and ardent members were dis- 
posed to complain of the Compromise Act, as being only 
a halfway, temporizing measure ; but when his explana- 
tions were made, all felt satisfied, and the convention 
cordially approved of his course. The nullification or- 
dinance was repealed, and the two parties in the State 
abandoned their organizations and agreed to forget all 
their past differences. So the storm blew over. 

One remarkable result of the pacification was that it 
strengthened the position of the leading men of both 
parties. The course was, cleared for Mr. Van Buren. 
The popularity of the President reached its highest 
point. Mr. Calhoun was rescued from peril, and a de- 



THE SECOND TERM. 



309 



gree of his former prestige was restored to him. The 
collectors of political pamphlets will discover that, as 
late as 1843, he still had hopes of reaching the presi- 
dency by uniting the South in his support and adding to 
the united South Pennsylvania. With too much truth 
he claimed, in subsequent debates, that it was the hostile 
attitude of South Carolina which alone had enabled Mr. 
Clay to carry his compromise. 

Mr. Clay, as some readers may remember, won great 
glory at the North by his course during the session of 
1833. He was received in New York and New England, 
this year, with that enthusiasm which his presence in the 
manufacturing States ever after inspired. The warmth 
of his reception consoled him for his late defeat at the 
polls, and gave new hopes to his friends. But the Colos- 
sus of the session was Daniel Webster, well named then, 
the expounder of the Constitution. In supporting the 
Administration in all its anti-nullification measures, he 
displayed his peculiar powers to the greatest advantage. 
The subject of debate was the one of all others the most 
congenial to him, and he rendered services then to his 
country to which his country in i860 recurred with grati- 
tude. " Nullification kept me out of the Supreme Court 
all last winter," he says in one of his letters in 1833. 
He mentions, also, that the President sent his own car- 
riage to convey him to the Capitol on one important oc- 
casion. After the adjournment he visited the great 
West, where he was welcomed with equal warmth by the 
friends and the opponents of the Administration. 

When all was over. General Jackson wrote that letter 
to the Rev. A. J. Crawford, of Georgia, which later 
events rendered the most celebrated of all his writings. 
May I, 1833, is the date of this famous production : 

" I have had," wrote the President, " a laborious task 
here, but nullification is dead, and its actors and courtiers 
21 



310 GENERAL JACKSON. 

will only be remembered by the people to be execrated 
for their wicked designs to sever and destroy the only 
good Government on the globe, and that prosperity and 
happiness we enjoy over every other portion of the 
world. Haman's gallows ought to be the fate of all 
such ambitious men who would involve the country in a 
civil war, and all the evils in its train, that they might 
reign and ride on its whirlwinds and direct the storm. 
The free people of the United States have spoken, and 
consigned these wicked demagogues to their proper 
doom. Take care of your nullifiers you have among 
you. Let them meet the indignant frowns of every man 
who loves his country. The tariff, it is now well known, 
was a mere pretext. Its burdens were on your coarse 
woolens; by the law of July, 1832, coarse woolens was 
reduced to five per cent for the benefit of the South. 
Mr. Clay's bill takes it up, and closes it with woolens at 
fifty per cent, reduces it gradually down to twenty per 
cent, and there it is to remain, and Mr. Calhoun and all 
the nullifiers agree to the principle. The cash duty and 
home valuation will be equal to fifteen per cent more, 
and after the year 1842 you will pay on coarse woolens 
thirty-five per cent. If this is not protection, I can not 
understand it. Therefore, the tariff was only the pre- 
text, and disunion and a Southern confederacy the real 
object. The next pretext will be the negro or the slavery 
questio7ir 

Not content to let the Bank of the United States 
peacefully die upon the expiration of its charter in 1836, 
the President resolved in 1833 to remove from it the 
public money, and thus sever its connection with the 
Government. The sub-Treasury had not yet been 
thought of, or only thought of. The complete divorce 
which that simple expedient effected between bank and 
State came too late to save the country from four years 



THE SECOND TERM. 



311 



of most disastrous "experiment." The plan proposed in 
1833 was, instead of depositing the public money in the 
Bank of the United States and its twenty-five branches, 
to deposit it in a similar number of State banks. We y 
can not wonder that every member of the Cabinet ex- 
cept two, besides some important members of the 
kitchen cabinet and a large majority of the President's 
best friends, opposed it from the beginning to the end. 

The measure occurred to the President while he was 
conversing, one day early in the year 1833, with Mr. 
Blair, of the Globe, who hated the bank only less than 
the President himself did. " Biddle," said Mr. Blair, 
''is actually using the people's money to frustrate the 
people's will. He is using the money of the Government 
for the purpose of breaking down the Government. If 
he had not the public money he could not do it." 

The President said, in his most vehement manner: 
" He sha'n't have the public money ! I'll remove the de- 
posits ! Blair, talk with our friends about this, and let 
me know what they think of it." 

The deposits were removed accordingly, and the pub- 
lic money was placed in the State banks all over the 
country. These State banks, as a Senator remarked, 
" soon began to feel their oats." The expression is 
homely, but not inapt. The extraordinary increase in 
the public revenue during the next two years added im- 
mense sums to the available capital of those banks, and 
gave a new and undue importance to the business o^ 
banking. Banks sprang into existence like mushroom^ 
in a night. The pet banks seemed compelled to extend 
their business, or lose the advantage of their connec- 
tion with the Government. The great bank felt itself 
obliged to expand, or be submerged in the general infla- 
tion. It expanded twelve millions during the next two 
years. All the other banks expanded, and all men ex- 



312 



GENERAL JACKSON. 



panded, and all things expanded. Many causes con- 
spired to produce the unexampled, the disastrous, the 
demoralizing inflation of 1835 and 1836; but I do not 
see any escape from the conclusion that the inciting 
cause was the vast amounts of public treasure that, dur- 
ing those years, were "lying about loose " in the deposit 
banks. General Jackson desired a currency of gold and 
silver. Never were such floods of paper money emitted 
as during the continuance of his own fiscal system. He 
wished to reduce the number and the importance of 
banks, bankers, brokers, and speculators. The years 
succeeding the transfer of the deposits were the golden 
biennium of just those classes. In a w^ord, his system, 
as far as my acquaintance with such matters enables me 
to judge, worked ill at every moment of its operation, 
and upon every interest of business and morality. To 
it, more than to all other causes combined, we owe the 
inflation of 1835 and 1836, the universal ruin of 1837, 
and the dreary and hopeless depression of the five years 
following. 

In November, 1836, General Jackson beheld the con- 
summation of his most cherished hopes in the election 
of Mr. Van Buren to the presidency. 

Signs of coming revulsion in the world of business 
were so numerous and so palpable during this year that 
it is wonderful so few observed them. The short crops 
of 1836 and the paper inflation had raised the price of 
the necessaries of life to a point they had never reached 
before, and have never reached since. Flour w^as sold 
in lots, at fifteen dollars a barrel ; in single barrels, at 
sixteen ; in smaller quantities, at eighteen. The grow- 
ing scarcity of money had already compelled manufac- 
turers to dismiss many of their workmen ; and thus, at 
a moment when financiers cherished the delusion that 
the country was prosperous beyond all previous example, 



THE SECOND TERM. 



313 



large numbers of worthy mechanics and seamstresses 
were suffering from want. 

To the last day of his residence in the presidential 
mansion General Jackson continued to receive proofs 
that he was still the idol of the people. The eloquence 
of the opposition had not availed to lessen his general 
popularity in the least degree. We read of one enthu- 
siastic Jacksonian conveying to Washington, from New 
York, with banners and bands of music, a prodigious 
cheese as a present to the retiring chief. The cheese 
was four feet in diameter, two feet thick, and weighed 
fourteen hundred pounds — twice as large, said the Globe, 
as the great cheese given to Mr. Jefferson on a similar 
occasion. The President, after giving away large masses 
of his cheese to his friends, found that he had still more 
cheese than he could consume. At his last public recep- 
tion he caused a piece of the cheese to be presented to 
all who chose to receive it — an operation that filled the 
White House with an odor that is pleasant only when 
there is not too much of it. Another ardent lover of the 
President gave him a light wagon composed entirely of 
hickory sticks with the bark upon them. Another pre- 
sented an elegant phaeton made of the wood of the old 
frigate Constitution, The hickory wagon the general 
left in Washington, as a memento to his successor. The 
Constitutional phaeton he took with him to the Hermit- 
age, where I saw it, faded and dilapidated, in 1858. 

The farewell address of the retiring President was 
little more than a resume of the doctrines of his eight 
annual messages. The priceless value of the Union; 
the danger to it of sectional agitation; the evils of a 
splendid and powerful government ; the safety and ad- 
vantages of plain and inexpensive institutions ; the 
perils of a surplus revenue; the injustice of a high 
tariff ; the unconstitutionality of that system of internal 



u 



^j. GENERAL JACKSON. 

improvements which the Maysville veto had checked; 
the curse of paper money ; the extreme desirableness of 
a currency of gold and silver — were the leading topics 
upon which the President descanted. " My own race," 
said he, " is nearly run ; advanced age and failing health 
warn me that before long I must pass beyond the reach 
of human events, and cease to feel the -vicissitudes of 
human affairs. I thank God that my life has been spent 
in a land of liberty, and that he has given me a heart to 
love my country with the affection of a son. And, filled 
with gratitude for your constant and unwavering kind- 
ness, I bid you a last and affectionate farewell." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

IN RETIREMENT. 

General Jackson was seventy years of age when 
he retired from the presidency. He was a very infirm 
old man, seldom free from pain for an hour, never for a 
day. Possessed of a most beautiful and productive farm 
and a hundred and fifty negroes, he yet felt himself to 
be a poor man on his return to the Hermitage. " I re- 
turned home," he writes to Mr. Trist, "with just ninety 
dollars in money, having expended all my salary, and 
most of the proceeds of my cotton crop ; found every- 
thing out of repair ; corn, and everything else for the 
use of my farm, to buy; having but one tract of land 
besides my homestead, which I have sold, and which has 
enabled me to begin the new year (1838) clear of debt, 
relying on our industry and economy to yield us a sup- 
port, trusting to a kind Providence for good seasons 
and a prosperous crop." 

During the next few years he lived the life of a 
planter, carefully directing the operations of his farm, 
enjoying the society of his adopted son and his amiable 
and estimable wife. They and their children were the 
solace of his old age. 

The commercial disasters of 1837 and the depression 
that succeeded had not seriously inconvenienced General 
Jackson, with his magnificent farm and his hundred and 
fifty negroes. He repeatedly expressed the opinion that 
no one failed in that great revulsion who ought not to 



3i6 GENERAL JACKSON. 

have failed. Not the faintest suspicion that any measure 
of his own had anything to do with it ever found lodg- 
ment in his mind. He laid all the blame upon Biddle, 
paper money, and speculation. In 1842, when business 
men began once more to hope for prosperous seasons, 
and the country awoke from its long lethargy, General 
Jackson became an anxious and embarrassed man through 
the misfortunes of his son. Money was not to be bor- 
rowed in the Western country even then, except at an 
exorbitant interest. He applied, in these circumstances, 
to his fast friend, Mr. Blair, of the Globe, who was then 
a man of fortune. Ten thousand dollars was the sum 
which the general deemed sufficient for his relief. Mr. 
Blair not only resolved on the instant to lend the money, 
but to lend it on the general's personal security, and to 
make the loan as closely resemble a gift as the general's 
delicacy would permit it to be. Mr. Rives desired to 
share the pleasure of accommodating General Jackson, 
and the loan was therefore made in the name of Blair 
and Rives. Upon reading Mr. Blair's reply to his appli- 
cation, the old man burst into tears. He handed the 
letter to his daughter, and she, too, was melted by the 
delicate generosity which it revealed. General Jackson, 
however, would accept the money only on conditions 
which secured his friends against the possibility of loss. 
Not long after these interesting events, further relief 
was afforded General Jackson by the refunding of the 
fine which he had paid at New Orleans, in 1815, for the 
arrest of Judge Hall, and for refusing to obey the writ 
of habeas corpus issued by him. The fine was originally 
one thousand dollars, but the accumulated interest 
swelled the amount to twenty-seven hundred. Senator 
Linn, of Missouri, introduced the bill for refunding the 
money, and gave it an earnest and persevering support. 
In the House the measure was strenuously supported by 



IN RETIREMENT. 



317 



Mr. Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, and Mr. Charles J. 
Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania, to both of whom General 
Jackson expressed his gratitude in the warmest terms. 
The bill was passed in the Senate by a party vote of 
twenty-eight to twenty — Mr. Calhoun votmg with the 
friends of the ex-President; in the House, by one hun- 
dred and fifty-eight to twenty-eight. 

The religious tendencies of General Jackson \vere 
strengthened by the example of his wife, and much more 
by her affecting death at the moment when he needed 
her most. He gave her his solemn promise to join the 
church as soon as he had done with politics, and the 
letters which he wrote during his presidency to members 
of his own family abound in religious expressions. The 
promise which he made to his wife he remembered, but 
did not strictly keep. In August, 1838, he wrote to one 
who had addressed him on the subject: ''I would long 
since have made this solemn public dedication to Al- 
mighty God, but knowing the wickedness of this world, 
and how prone men are to evil, that the scoffer of re- 
ligion would have cried out, ' Hypocrisy ! he has joined 
the church for political effect,' I thought it best to post- 
pone this public act until my retirement to the shades of 
private life, when no false imputation could be made 
that might be injurious to religion." He passed two or 
three years, however, " in the shades of private life " 
before he performed the act referred to in this letter. 

In 1842 he fulfilled the promise he had made to his 
wife, and joined the Presbyterian Church, Rev. Dr. 
Edgar, of Nashville, performing the ceremony at the 
little brick edifice on the Hermitage farm. Dr. Edgar 
informed me that the usual questions respecting doc- 
trine and experience were satisfactorily answered by the 
candidate. Then there was a pause in the conversation. 
The clergyman said, at length : 



3i8 GENERAL JACKSON. 

" General, there is one more question which it is my 
duty to ask you. Can you forgive all your enemies ?" 

The question was evidently unexpected, and the 
candidate was silent for a while. 

" My political enemies," said he, " I can freely for- 
give ; but as for those who abused me when I was serv- 
ing my country in the field, and those who attacked me 
for serving my country — doctor, that is a different 
case." 

The doctor assured him that it was not. Christianity, 
he said, forbade the indulgence of enmity absolutely 
and in all cases. No man could be received into a 
Christian church who did not cast out of his heart every 
feeling of that nature. It was a condition that was 
fundamental and indispensable. After a considerable 
pause the candidate said that he thought he could for- 
give all who had injured him, even those who had as- 
sailed him for what he had done for his country in the 
field. 

From this time to the end of his life General Jack- 
son spent most of his leisure hours in reading the Bible, 
biblical commentaries, and the hymn-book, which last 
he always pronounced in the old-fashioned way, Jmne- 
book. The work known as " Scott's Bii)le " was his 
chief delight ; he read it through twice before his death. 
Nightly he read prayers in the presence of his family 
and household servants. 

Great was the joy of General Jackson at the election 
of Mr. James K. Polk in 1844. In a field adjoining the 
Hermitage he entertained two hundred guests at dinner, 
in honor of the event. His anxiety, however, oh the 
subject of the annexation of Texas appeared to increase 
rather than diminish after the election. On the first 
day of the last year of his life he wrote a long letter 
to his friend Blair, urging him to use all his influence 



IN RETIREMENT. 319 

to induce Congress to act with promptitude in the 
matter. 

The well-known correspondence between Commo- 
dore Elliot and General Jackson, with regard to the 
sarcophagus of the Roman emperor, occurred in the 
spring of the last year of the general's life. "Last 
night," wrote the blunt sailor [March 18, 1845], "I 
made something of a speech at the National Institute 
(Washington, D. C), and have offered for their accept- 
ance the sarcophagus which I obtained in Palestine, 
brought home in the Constitution, and believed to con- 
tain the remains of the Roman Emperor Alexander 
Severus, with the suggestion that it might be ten- 
dered you for your final resting-place. I pray you, 
general, to live on in the fear of the Lord ; dying the 
death of a Roman soldier ; an emperor's coffin awaits 
you." 

The general replied : ''With the warmest sensations 
that can inspire a grateful heart, I must decline accept- 
ing the honor intended to be bestowed. I can not con- 
sent that my mortal body shall be laid in a repository 
prepared for an emperor or a king. My republican feel- 
ings and principles forbid it; the simplicity of our sys- 
tem of government forbids it; every monument erected 
to perpetuate the memory of our heroes and statesmen 
ought to bear evidence of the economy and simplicity 
of our republican institutions, and the plainness of our 
republican citizens, who are the sovereigns of our 
glorious Union, and whose virtue is to perpetuate it. 
True virtue can not exist where pomp and parade are 
the governing passions; it can only dwell with the 
people — the great laboring and producing classes that 
form the bone and sinew of our confederacy. I have 
prepared an humble depository for my mortal body 
beside that wherein lies my beloved wife, where, w^ith- 



320 GENERAL JACKSON. 

out any pomp or parade, I have requested, when my 
God calls me to sleep with my fathers, to be laid." 

During the first six years after his retirement from 
the presidency, General Jackson's health was not much 
worse than it had usually been in Washington. Every 
attack of bleeding at the lungs, however, left him a 
little weaker than he had ever been before, and his re- 
covery was slower and less complete. During the last 
two years of his life he could never be said to have 
rallied from these attacks, but remained always very 
weak, and knew few intervals, and those very short, of 
relief from pain. A cough tormented him day and 
night. He had all the symptoms of consumption. One 
lung was consumed entirely, and the other was dis- 
eased. Six months before his death, certain dropsical 
symptoms, which had threatened him for years, were 
painfully developed. The patience which he displayed 
during those years of dissolution sometimes approached 
the sublime. No anguish, however severe, however pro- 
tracted, ever wrung from this most irascible of men a 
fretful or a complaining word. 

He saw the light of Sunday morning — June 8th — 
a still, brilliant, hot day. He had been worse the day 
before, and Dr. Esselman had remained all night at the 
Hermitage. " On Sunday morning,"" writes Dr. Essel- 
man, "on entering his room, I found him sitting in his 
armchair, with his two faithful servants, George and 
Dick, by his side, who had just removed him from his 
bed. I immediately perceived that the hand of death 
was upon him. I informed his son that he could survive 
but a few hours, and he immediately dispatched a serv- 
ant for Major William B. Lewis, the general's devoted 
friend. Mr. Jackson informed me that it was the gen- 
eral's request that, in case he grew worse, or was thought 
to be near his death. Major Lewis should be sent for, as 



IN RETIREMENT. 321 

he wished him to be near him in his last moments. He 
was instantly removed to his bed, but before he could be 
placed there he had swooned away. His family and ser- 
vants, believing him to be dead, were very much alarmed 
and manifested the most intense grief ; however, in a 
few seconds reaction took place, and he became con- 
scious, and raised his eyes, and said : ' My dear children, 
do not grieve for me; it is true, I am going to leave 
you; I am well aware of my situation; I have suffered 
much bodily pain, but my sufferings are but as nothing 
compared with that which our blessed Saviour endured 
upon that accursed cross, that we might all be saved 
who put our trust in him.' He first addressed Mrs. 
Jackson (his daughter-in-law), and took leave of her, re- 
minding her of her tender kindness manifested toward 
him at all times, and especially during his protracted ill- 
ness. He next took leave of Mrs. Adams (a widowed 
sister of Mrs. Jackson, who had been a member of the 
general's family for several years), in the most kind and 
affectionate manner, speaking also of her tender devo- 
tion toward him during his illness. In conclusion, he 
said, ' My dear children, and friends, and servants, I 
hope and trust to meet you all in heaven, both white 
and black.' The last sentence he repeated — ' both white 
and black,' looking at them with the tenderest solicitude. 
With these words he ceased to speak, but fixed his eyes 
on his granddaughter, Rachel Jackson (who bears the 
name of his own beloved wife), for several seconds." 

Major Lewis arrived about noon. " Major," said the 
dying man, in a feeble voice, but quite audibly, " I am 
glad to see you. You had like to have been too late."' 
The crowd of servants on the piazza, who were all day 
looking in through the windows, sobbed, cried out, and 
wrung their hands. The general spoke again : " What 
is the matter with my dear children ? Have I alarmed 



322 GENERAL JACKSON. 

you ? Oh, do not cry. Be good children, and we will 
all meet in heaven." 

These were his last words. He lay for half an hour 
with closed eyes, breathing softly and easily. Major 
Lewis stood close to his head. The family were about 
the bed, silently waiting and weeping. George and the 
faithful Hannah were present. Hannah could not be 
induced to leave the room. " I was born and raised on 
the place," said she, "and my place is here." At six 
o'clock the general's head suddenly fell forward and was 
caught by Major Lewis. The major applied his ear to 
the mouth of his friend, and found that he had ceased to 
breathe. He had died without a struggle or a pang. 
Major Lewis removed the pillows, drew down the body 
upon the bed, and closed the eyes. Upon looking again 
at the face, he observed that the expression of pain which 
it had worn so long had passed away. Death had restored 
it to naturalness and serenity. The aged warrior slept. 

Two days after, he was laid in the grave by the side 
of his wife, of whom he had said, not long before he 
died, " Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet 
my wife there." All Nashville and the country round 
about seemed to be present at the funeral. Three thou- 
sand persons were thought to be assembled on the lawn 
in front of the house, when Dr. Edgar stepped out upon 
the portico to begin the services. The preacher related, 
with impressive effect, the history of the late religious 
life of the deceased, and pronounced upon his character 
an eloquent but a discriminating eulogium. A hymn 
which the general had loved concluded the ceremonies. 
The body was then borne to the garden and placed in 
the tomb long ago prepared for its reception. *' I never 
witnessed a funeral of half the solemnity," wrote a spec- 
tator at the time. The tablet which covers the remains 
bears this inscription : 



IN RETIREMENT. 323 

GENERAL 

ANDREW JACKSON, 

Born on the 15TH of March, 1767, 

Died on the 8th of June, 1845. 

When the news of the death of General Jackson 
reached Washington, the President of the United States 
ordered the departments to be closed for one day ; and 
Mr, Bancroft, the Secretary of the Navy and Acting Sec- 
retary of War, directed public honors to be paid to the 
memory of the ex-President at all the military and naval 
stations. In every large town in the country there were 
public ceremonies in honor of the deceased, consisting 
usually of an oration and a procession. In the city of 
New York the entire body of the uniformed militia, all 
the civic functionaries, the trades and societies, joined 
in the parade. The record of the solemnities performed 
in the city of New York, in honor of Andrew Jackson, 
forms an octavo volume of three hundred and three 
pages. Twenty-five of the orations delivered on this 
occasion, in various towns and cities, were published in 
a volume entitled " Monument to the Memory of Gen- 
eral Andrew Jackson." 

Thus lived and died Andrew Jackson, the idol of his 
party, often the pride and favorite of his country. His 
best friends could not deny that he had deplorable faults, 
nor his worst enemies that he possessed rare and dazzling 
merits. He rendered his country signal services, and 
brought upon the government of that country an evil 
which it will be extremely difficult to remedy. No man 
will ever be quite able to comprehend Andrew Jackson 
who has not personally known a Scotch-Irishman. More 
than he was anything else, he was a north-of-Irelander 



324 GENERAL JACKSON. 

— a tenacious, pugnacious race; honest, yet capable of 
dissimulation; often angry, but most prudent when most 
furious; endowed by nature with the gift of extracting 
from every affair and every relation all the strife it can 
be made to yield; at home and among dependents, all 
tenderness and generosity ; to opponents, violent, un- 
generous, prone to believe the worst of them; a race 
that means to tell the truth, but, when excited by anger 
or warped by prejudice, incapable of either telling, or 
remembering, or knowing the truth; not taking kindly 
to culture, but able to achieve wonderful things without 
it : a strange blending of the best and the worst qualities 
of two races. Jackson had these traits in an exagger- 
ated degree : as Irish as though he were not Scotch ; as 
Scotch as though he were not Irish. 

It was curious that England and America should 
both, and nearly at the same time, have elevated their 
favorite generals to the highest civil station. Welling- 
ton became Prime Minister in 1827 ; Jackson, President 
in 1829. Wellington was tried three years, and found 
wanting, and driven from power, execrated by the peo- 
ple. His carriage, his house, and his statue, were pelted 
by the mob. Jackson reigned eight years, and retired 
with his popularity undiminished. Wellington was not 
in accord with his generation, and was surrounded by 
men who were, if possible, less so ; while Jackson, be- 
sides being in sympathy with the people, had the great 
good fortune to be influenced by men who had learned 
the rudiments of statesmanship in the school of Jefferson. 

Autocrat as he was, Andrew Jackson loved the peo- 
ple, the common people, the sons and daughters of toil, 
as truly as they loved him, and believed in them as they 
believed in him. He had a perception that the toiling 
millions are not a class in the community, but are the. 
community. He felt that government should exist only 



IN RETIREMENT. 



325 



for the benefits of the governed ; that the strong are 
strong only that they may aid the weak ; that the rich are 
rightfully rich only that they may so combine and direct 
the labors of the poor as to make labor more profitable to 
the laborer. He did not comprehend these truths as they 
are demonstrated by philosophers, but he had an intuitive 
and instinctive perception of them. And in his most 
autocratic moments he really thought that he was fight- 
ing the battle of the people, and doing their will while 
baffling the purposes of their representatives. If he had 
been a man of knowledge as well as force, he would have 
taken the part of the people more effectually, and left 
to his successors an increased power of doing good, in- 
stead of better facilities for doing harm. 

The domestic life of this singular man was blameless. 
He was a chaste man at every period of his life. His 
letters, of which many hundreds still exist, contain not 
a sentence, not a phrase, not a word, that a girl may 
not properly read. A husband more considerately and 
laboriously kind never lived. As a father he was only 
too indulgent ; his generosity to his adopted children 
was inexhaustible. To his slaves he was master, father, 
physician, counselor, all in one; and though his over- 
seers complained that he was too lenient, yet his steady 
prosperity for so many years, and the uniform abundance 
of his crops, seem to prove that his servants were not 
negligent of their master's interest. He had a virtuous 
abhorrence of debt, and his word was as good as his 
bond. In all his private transactions, from youth to 
hoary age, he was punctiliously honest. 

Most of our history for the last hundred years will 
not be remembered for many centuries ; but perhaps 
among the few things oblivion will spare may be some 
outline of the story of Andrew Jackson — the poor Irish 
immigrant's orphan son ; who defended, his country at 



326 GENERAL JACKSON. 

New Orleans, and, being elected President therefor, kept 
that country in an uproar for eight years; and, after 
being more hated and more loved than any man of his 
day, died peacefully at his home in Tennessee, and was 
borne to his grave followed by the benedictions of a 
large majority of his fellow-citizens. 



INDEX. 



Ambrister, Robert C, Indian 
trader, captured by Jackson, 
264 ; trial and execution of, 
266-268. 

Arbuthnot, Alexander, Scotch 
trader at Fort St. Marks, ar- 
rested by Jackson, 262 ; accused 
of treachery, 263 ; trial and ex- 
ecution of, 266-268. 

Bailey, Captain, succeeds Major 
Beasley in command of Fort 
Mims, 69 ; death of, 71. 

Beasley, Major Daniel, commander 
ot Fort Mims, 65-68. 

Benton, Colonel Thomas H., his 
statement of Jackson's first mili- 
tary service under the United 
States, 57-59 ; is involved in a 
" difficulty " with Jackson, 60- 
62 ; appointed lieutenant-colonel. 
United States Army, 62 ; re- 
signs at close of War of 1812, 63. 

Benton, Jesse, has a " difficulty " 
with Jackson, 59. 

Burr, Aaron, visits Jackson at the 
Hermitage, 44-46 ; his opinion 
of Jackson, 48 ; arranges with 
Jackson for supplies and trans- 
portation, 46 ; his unlawful de- 
signs made public, 47 ; Jackson 



issues order for arrest of, 47 ; 
defended by Jackson, 47. 

Calhoun, John C, Vice-President 
United States, tariff reformer, 
298 ; advocate of nullification, 
300 ; counsels moderation, 308. 

Coffee, Colonel John, business 
partner of, and cavalry com- 
mander under Jackson, 51-55 ; 
present at affray between Jack- 
son and the Bentons, 61-63 ; 
commanding brigade in Creek 
campaign (18 13), 78-86; chastises 
enemy at Talluschatches, 84 ; 
attacks the Creeks at the Horse- 
shoe, 112-116 ; arrival at Mobile 
of, 136 ; marches to New Or- 
leans, 142 ; commands in night 
attack on British, 170. 

Cooke, Captain John N., British 
army, account of night affair at 
New Orleans, 171 ; describes 
British retreat after battle of 
New Orleans, 234. 

Crockett, David, serves under 
Jackson as scout, 79. 

Dale, Colonel, commanding British 
regiment, his presentiment at the 
battle of New Orleans, 212. 



328 



GENERAL JACKSON. 



Davie, Colonel William Richard- 
son, 6 ; Jackson boys serve 
under, 8. 

Dickinson, Charles, duel with 
Jackson, 33-42. 

Donelson, Andrew Jackson, 
nephew educated by Jackson, 
48. 

Eaton, Major John H., Secretary 
of War, 283 ; involved in social 
complications, 282. 

Eaton, Mrs., 283-285. 

Gadsden, Fort, erected by Lieu- 
tenant James Gadsden, of Jack- 
son's staff, 256 ; Jackson awaits 
supplies at, 257. 

Gaines, General Edmund P., Unit- 
ed States Army, punishes the 
Seminoles, 259. 

Ghent, the Treaty of, 179. 

Gibbs, General Samuel, commands 
British troops at New Orleans, 
180, 214 ; death of, 217. 

Gleig, Rev. George R., comments 
on Jackson's management of the 
New Orleans campaign, vi ; de- 
scribes the appearance of Jack- 
son's forces before battle of New 
Orleans, 188 ; describes opening 
of the battle, 194. 

Hamson, William H., resigns his 

commission as major-general, 

119. 
Hayne, Isaac, Governor of South 

Carolina, announces his views 

on State rights, 301. 
Henly, Captain, commands United 

States steamship Louisiana at 



New Orleans, 183 ; his report to 

Commodore Patterson, 183. 
Houston, Sam, private soldier 

under Jackson, 108 ; stoicism 

when wounded, 113. 
Humbert, General, commanding 

troops under Jackson at New 

Orleans, 227. 
Humphrey, Captain, commanding 

American artillery at New 

Orleans, 196. 

Jackson, Andrew, nephew and 
heir of General Jackson, 48. 

Jackson, Hugh, brother of Andrew 
Jackson, 6. 

Jackson, General Andrew, mili- 
tary capacity, v-vii ; tribute of a 
British officer, vi, vii ; his favor- 
ite maxims ; parentage, i ; his 
father's poverty, 2 ; birthplace, 
3 ; education, 4-7 ; an " old- 
field school," 4 ; boyish charac- 
teristics, 5 ; not a well-informed 
man, 5 ; takes part in the Rev- 
olutionary War, 7-16 ; a broth- 
er killed at Hanging Rock, 7 ; 
rides with Davie's regiment as a 
volunteer, 8 ; his Carolina neigh- 
bors, 9 ; he joins a partisan band 
of " Whigs," 10 ; his first en- 
counter with the British, 10 ; a 
prisoner of war, ii ; resents an 
insult, II ; wounded, 12 ; out- 
wits his captors, 12 ; sufferings 
in captivity, 13-15 ; attacked 
by small-pox, 15 ; is exchanged 
and returns home, 15 ; an orphan, 
16 ; curious turn of fortune, 18 ; 
becomes a schoolmaster, 18; stud- 
ies law, 17-20; office in which 



INDEX. 



329 



he studied law, 19 ; licensed 
to practice law, 20 ; personal 
appearance at twenty, 20 ; a 
Tennessee lawyer, 22 ; moves to 
Nashville, 22 ; public prosecutor, 
23 ; marriage, 23 ; acquire^ real 
estate, 23 ; delegate to Constitu- 
tional Convention, 25 ; elected 
to Congress from Tennessee, 25; 
horseback ride of eight hundred 
miles to take his seat, 25 ; Wash- 
ington's last address to Congress 
opposed by, 27 ; addresses the 
House, 28 ; appointed Senator 
in 1797, and resigns in 1798, 28 ; 
elected Judge of the Supreme 
Court of Tennessee, 29 ; the 
Jackson-Sevier feud, 29 ; major- 
general of militia, 30 ; a man of 
business, 30 ; failure and re- 
habilitation, 31 ; the Hermitage, 
31, 40 ; "a man with many 
irons in the fire," 31 ; " Trux- 
ton," 32 ; " the code " in the 
South, 1790-1810, 33 ; duel with 
Dickinson, 33-42 ; effect on his 
popularity, 42 ; his generous 
hospitality, 44 ; meets Aaron 
Burr, 44 ; his opinion of Burr, 
45'; agrees to furnish supplies 
and transportation to Burr, 46 ; 
arrests Burr, 47 ; defends Burr, 
47 ; adopts a nephew, 48 ; ten- 
ders services of his division to 
the General Government, 49 ; 
accepted by President Madison, 
50 ; ordered to re-enforce Gen- 
eral Wilkinson, 50 ; rendezvous 
of his troops at Nashville, 51 ; 
intense cold and exposure of his 
command, 51 ; composition of 



his staff, 52 ; reports progress to 
War Department, 52 ; asked to 
halt at Natchez by Wilkinson, 
53 ; command relieved from 
further duty by Secretary of 
War, 54 ; his action in an em- 
barrassing position, 56 ; decides 
to march command back to 
Tennessee, 56 ; commendation 
from the press, 57; Colonel 
Benton's statement, 58 ; has a 
" difficulty " with Jesse Benton, 
59 ; bitter correspondence with 
Thomas H. Benton, 60 ; severely 
wounded, 61 ; massacre at Fort 
Mims, 64 ; militia of Tennessee 
called out to protect frontier, 74 ; 
insists upon taking the command, 
76 ; he surmounts great difficul- 
ties in mobilizing his troops, 77- 
80 ; adopts Indian infant found 
on battle-field, 84 ; Indian scout's 
disguise, 85 ; attacks Indians 
near Fort Strother, 87 ; they sue 
for peace, 89 ; his response, 89 ; 
privations of the troops, 91 ; 
symptoms of revolt, 92 ; address 
to his soldiers, 93 ; quells a 
mutiny, loi ; he strikes a finish- 
ing blow at the Creeks, 108-117 ; 
appointed major-general in the 
army, 119 ; his sudden good 
fortune, 120 ; impaired health, 
121 ; n^otiates treaty with the 
Creeks, 123 ; defends Mobile, 
124 ; drives the British from 
Florida, 125 ; his ultimatum to 
the Spanish Governor, 139 ; re- 
port of operations, 140 ; capture 
of Fort Barrancas, 141 ; marches 
upon New Orleans, 143 ; prep- 



330 



GENERAL JACKSON. 



arations to defend the city 
against the British, 145 ; organi- 
zation of local forces by, 150 ; 
composition of his forces to meet 
the British, 151 ; strength of 
forces opposed to, 152; meets 
the enemy half-way, 161 ; night 
battle, December 23d, 165 ; the 
British proclamation to " Louisi- 
anians," 165; shovels and wheel- 
barrows, 176 ; he reconnoitres 
British position, 181 ; advance 
of the British, 187 ; second ad- 
vance of Pakenham's troops, 
192 ; arrival of Kentuckian re- 
enforcements for, 199 ; forlorn 
condition of those troops, 200 ; 
generosity of citizens of New 
Orleans, 204 ; the 8th of Janu- 
ary, 208 ; end of the campaign, 
231 ; enters city of New Or- 
leans in triumph, 238 ; issues 
proclamation to his army, 240 ; 
orders French consul and others 
to leave the city, 241 ; conflict 
with the civil authorities of 
Louisiana, 242 ; arrival of Gov- 
ernment courier with news of 
peace, 243 ; notifies British com- 
mander, 244 ; appears in court 
under habeas corpus, 245 ; sen- 
tenced to pay a fine, 246 ; re- 
turns to Nashville, 248 ; pro- 
ceeds to Washingtqji, 249 ; vis- 
ited by Jefferson, 249 ; is re- 
tained as major-general in re- 
organization of the army, 250 ; 
popularity of, 251 ; ordered to 
take the field against the Semi- 
noles, 255 ; occupies the Span- 
ish fort St. Marks, 261 ; ar- 



rests Arbuthnot as a suspicious 
character, 262 ; captures Am- 
brister, tries and executes these 
men, 266-268 ; resigns from the 
army and becomes Governor of 
Florida, 270 ; imprisons Span- 
ish Governor of Pensacola, 271 ; 
resigns office, 271 ; candidate for 
President, 273 ; visits Washing- 
ton, 274 ; defeated by Adams, 
275 ; revisits New Orleans, 276 ; 
magnificent reception, 276 ; bit- 
ter political campaign of 1828, 
277 ; elected President, 279 ; 
death of his wife, 279 ; inaugu- 
ration of, 282 ; announces his 
Cabinet, 282 ; Eaton-O'Neal af- 
fair, 285 ; wholesale removals 
from office, 288 ; incident of 
United States Bank, 289 ; his 
toast at Jefferson's dinner, 292 ; 
indorses Van Buren, 294 ; ve- 
toes United States Bank Bill, 
595 ; re-election to presidency, 
297 ; sends General Scott to 
Charleston to thwart nullifiers, 
302 ; issues proclamation, 303 ; 
letter to a friend on the crisis, 
309 ; advocates new financial 
policy, 311 ; extraordinary popu- 
larity of, 313 ; farewell address 
of, 314 ; in retirement, 315 ; 
Congress refunds fine imposed 
by New Orleans court upon, 

317 ; joins Presbyterian Church, 

318 ; corresponds with Com- 
modore Elliott, 319 ; last hours 
of, 320 ; public demonstration 
at death of, 323. 

Jackson, Mrs. Elizabeth, the moth- 
er of Jackson, 4 ; her devotion 



INDEX. 



331 



to her sons and efforts to re- 
lease them, 14-16 ; her patriot- 
ism, 16 ; her death, 16. 
Jones, Lieutenant Thomas Ap 
Catesby, U. S. Navy, placed in 
charge of gunboat off New Or- 
leans, 148 ; surrenders to Brit- 
ish, 153. 

Keane, General John, command- 
ing British advance at New Or- 
leans, 153-156; description of 
the march, 156-158. 

Kennedy, Major, reports the ap- 
pearance of Fort Mims after 
massacre, 71. 

Lambert, General John, succeeds 
to command of British forces af- 
ter battle of New Orleans, 226 ; 
falls back on his ships, 232. 

Latour, Major A. Lacarriere, de- 
scribes return of the American 
troops to New Orleans after the 
battle, 236. 

Lawrence, Major William, Second 
U. S. Infantry, gallant defense 
of Fort Morgan by, 129. 

Lewis, Major William B., his 
opinion of Jackson's military 
characteristics, v ; quartermas- 
ter of Jackson's Tennessee mili- 
tia (1812), 52. 

McCay, Spruce, with whom Jack- 
son began the study of law, 
19. 

Mims, Fort, scene of Indian mas- 
sacre, 1813, 64; news of massa- 
cre at, 72 ; action of Tennessee 
Legislature, 75. 



Mims, Samuel, owner of the build- 
ing called " Fort Mims," 64. 

Mullens, Colonel, commands For- 
ty-fourth Regiment (British) at 
New Orleans, 211. 

New Orleans, operations of Jack- 
son prior to battle of, 150 ; land- 
ing of the British, 154 ; ladies 
visit field-hospitals after battle 
of, 236 ; the American army re- 
turns to, 237. 

Overton, General Thomas, sec- 
onds Jackson in Dickinson duel, 
37-40. 

Pakenham, General Sir Edward, 
takes command of British forces 
before New Orleans, 180; forms 
new plan of campaign, 201 ; his 
operations on the 8th of Janu- 
ary, 212 ; death of, 216. 

Parsons, Enoch, Senator, describes 
effect of Fort Mims massacre in 
Nashville, 74. 

Patterson, Commodore, U. S. Navy, 
commands fleet in vicinity of 
New Orleans, 148 ; co-operates 
with troops in night attack, 166 ; 
reports operations, 204. 

Reid, John, aide-de-camp, secre- 
tary and biographer of Jack- 
son, 52. 

Robards, Mrs. Rachel, marries 
Andrew Jackson, 23. 

Scott, Lieutenant, Seventh U. S. 
Infantry, attacked by Seminoles, 
254- 



332 



GENERAL JACKSON. 



Shelocta, Indian scout during 
Jackson's (1813) Creek cam- 
paign, 8t. 

Stokes, Colonel John, with whom 
Jackson completed his prepara- 
tion for the bar, 20. 

Thornton, Colonel W., command- 
ing British detachment at New 
Orleans, 206. 

Villere, Major Gabriel, notifies 



Jackson of the enemy's approach 
to New Orleans, 159. 

Weatherford, chief of the Creek 
Indians, 67 ; leads attack on 
Fort Mims, 70. 

Wilkinson, General James, U. S. 
Army, instructs Jackson to halt 
militia at Natchez, 53. 

Wilson, General James Grant, cor- 
respondence and conversations 
with Chaplain-General Gleig, 
vi, vii. Note on the author, viii. 



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